Spellbound
by Lovely Grifter
Summary: With no heart Howl's ego demands retribution. His thoughts are consumed by the scrap of a girl who rejected him on May Day. So Howl devises a plan to make Sophie pay for the insult. Though in time, his forsaken heart will melt for her.
1. Prologue

_**Summary: **__This is a melding of the book and movie verse: Howl's ego can't handle the fact Sophie declined his offer for a drink on May Day. He still doesn't have a heart and his pride demands retribution. Oddly, the wizard can't stop thinking of the plain girl, and devises a plan to make Sophie pay for rejecting his offer. He wants to hurt her the way she hurt him - though he doesn't understand why. When she mixes his potions and his hair goes wrong a slime tantrum won't do! However, in time, his heart will melt for Sophie…_

**Rating: T **for the time being.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**Prologue: Trapped**

The door of the castle slammed hard. The dirty cups and dishes in the sink clattered. The dusty books and rubbish on the kitchen table came crashing to the wooden floor in a cloud of dirt.

The purple red flicker in the hearth remained under his grate, fast asleep. It was late and he was tired moving the castle around the wastes. No tantrums tonight would wake him.

"How DARE that plain, silly pathetic girl refuse me!"

The tiny flickers under the logs hissed, aggravated. He knew too well _this_ child's tantrum couldn't be ignored away. "Howl, you fool! As if this dingy cave of yours isn't dirty enough. I'm surprised Markl doesn't die from catching some disease from all this mould, mildew, dust and slime you got going on. Even the insects, spiders and mouse live better than we do!" The wavering flame reprimanded testily.

"SHUT UP! I'll teach her a thing or two."

The Wizard paced back and forth at the front of the hearth, throwing his jacket on the chair, jade earrings moving wildly like irate green flames. He kicked the stool by the fireplace into the dining table, knocking the foodstuffs and disused knick-knacks from the table top, all of it tumbling noisily to the ground.

"Howl! Quit it! What the hell has gotten into you? This place is gonna be more of a pig sty tomorrow if you don't cut it out! NOW!" Calcifer crawled to the top of the logs, bellowing his flames at the out of control Wizard. "Did some girl dump you again?"

"So my castle is dirty, is it? Very well. Then we'll need a cleaning lady. I'll have her by the end of tomorrow, you demon." And the slender Wizard shot up the stairs to his room. His pale green eyes glinted maliciously. "I know how to find out more about her: from her sister at that bakery."

--x--

The red sun rose in the east and a layer of mist began lifting early the next morning.

"A small ragged looking girl with unattractive, limp, ginger red hair, _terrible_ style and badly attired at that; No social manners; no conversation; nothing but an old woman's dress sense. She's such a pathetic slip of girl no one will miss her, even if she fell off the face of the earth," the Wizard simmered, standing by the lamp post watching the girl serving the customers in the hat shop. "No class at all." He leapt up effortlessly into the air, above garish colored rooftops, air walking himself towards Cesari Bakery.

--x--

"Lettie Hatter. There is a gentle man caller for you. He says it's about your sister Sophie. He's at the back."

The bubbly, beautiful young lady stood to attention hearing her sister's name.

"Ok, I'll be back right away," she said, running to the back entrance wondering what was wrong. Who was the gentleman caller?

"Hello Lettie. You don't know me, but my name is Howl Pendragon," the Wizard smirked lazily, letting his gleaming blonde hair fall over his eyes.

"You are here about my sister, Mr. Pendragon?" Lettie asked worriedly, overwhelmed by the man's flamboyant yet striking appearance.

"You are beautiful indeed. No wonder Cesari has so many male customers," he glibly remarked, raking his eyes up and down her curvaceous body, flagrantly appreciating what he saw. "So why is your sister such an ugly little mouse then?"

"_Stop it!_ I won't have you talk about my sister like that. If this is all you seek I must get back to work," Lettie hissed at the arrogant, infuriatingly, remarkably elegant man.

"I apologize. My intentions are honourable and I come to ask for information. Your sister is _Sophie_? She is in trouble, correct? Always working night and day at that hat shop?" His voice was now low, humble and beseeching.

"Y- Yes. How did you know?" Lettie halted her steps at hearing 'Sophie' and the sudden soft timber of the man's tone.

"My wife frequents that hat shop, and being a compassionate soul, she tells me about Sophie being miserable all the time. I love my wife and want to make her happy. Even if it means helping out a girl I don't know. I can't bear to see my beloved suffer." The lie rolled off Howl's tongue like honey: his tone devastatingly rendering.

Beguiled and taken in by Howl's wiles, Lettie found herself blurting out how her dead father had left all the debts to her sister, Sophie. They had to leave school because the tuition bills were piling up, and the hat shop was now Sophie's responsibility too. She told of how their mother had run off to find a rich man, leaving Sophie with all the family debts. Lettie was hoping this dashing, surely noble man could pay the debts. Certainly, he would if he desired to make his wife happy _and _relieve Sophie of her undeserved burdens. There couldn't be any harm in divulging the family problems to such a seemly sagely and kindly gentleman. Why else would a man want to help Sophie?

"Where is your mother, Lettie? I shall need to speak with her then," the Wizard urged, knowing fully he had yet another woman wrapped twice over around his perfectly manicured fingers.

--x--

In the parlour of the hat shop, shadows crept along the floors as twilight dawned. The oil lamp hissed quietly, as if disquieted by the conversation in the room.

Sophie screamed at her mother. "NO! I don't want to go with this man. I don't know him. How could you sell me to him, Mother? Why? I could have worked harder and found a second job to pay off the debts for the school fees and still run the hat shop. Please. _Please_ don't let him take me mother. _PLEASE!_"

However, it was too late. The eager Fanny had already signed a contract with the Wizard, selling her oldest, plainest daughter with no prospects to this powerful Wizard who had, as promised, paid off all her debts that very day. As a mother, Fanny had to look after three daughters. One was lovely Lettie, who would have her choice of suitors and would marry well; one was Martha, who was smart and witty with a good head to learn any trade easily. Her oldest was just simple and bland as corn flour, reserved with no prospects. It hurt to say this, but sacrificing one daughter's life for the future of two was a bargain she was willing to make: or a sacrifice she would force on Sophie to burden.

"Come, Miss Hatter. There is nothing left for you here. You belong to me now." The Wizard Jenkins smiled benignly at her, his eyes shimmering the sweetest shades of green, offering her his open hand.

"NO!" Sophie cried, her body trembling in morbid grief. She was slowly backing towards the front door. "Mother, _PLEASE!_" In a final attempt to escape the dire situation, Sophie stumbled and knelt at her mother's knees. "Please mother I don't want to go with this man!"

"I'm sorry Sophie. I am sure he'll treat you well," she replied, and Fanny swivelled on her designer heels, walking uncaringly out of the hat shop, and Sophie's life.

"Sophie. It's time," the Wizard gently ordered. He had been adamant not to show pity on this little mouse who'd brushed him off. His only concern was tearing her from family, into a life of servitude and suffering: he wanted to hurt her as she'd hurt him. However, the victory weighed heavily in his chest: an alien sensation constricting his breath. A soft kindness ignited in his eyes watching Sophie's slumped body on the floor: but it died as quickly as it had appeared.

"NO!" She viciously bit, glaring spears at the Howl. Through her mist of bitter tears, Sophie remained defiant, refusing to budge. Until she felt herself be-spelled, a magical force pulling at her like strings, to stand, and gait towards the tall blonde man who now owned her life.

"_Why are you doing this me? I don't know you,"_ Sophie gasped between bursts of tears, questioning her fate, for the first time in her life.

He beamed a devilish grin, a flash of gratification danced in his eyes. "Well Sophie. No one says _no_ to Howl Jenkins Pendragon. You shouldn't have refused my offer to escort you for a drink yesterday. You should have been flattered I even wasted my breath on you, my ugly duckling," he sneered spitefully.

"Y-You ruined my life for your ego?" Sophie's hand lashed lightening fast, her actions urged on by adrenaline, striking him hard on his peachy cheek.

_SLAP! _The sound of flesh on flesh ricocheted off the paisley paper walls.

"You egotistical bastard!"

The Wizard snarled briefly, before regaining his suave composure, twisting Sophie's arm behind her back, roughly jerking her hard against him. "You'll pay for that if my skin is damaged in anyway, Sophie Hatter." His tone was a promise that froze Sophie's blood to ice.

"I'll never go with you!" Kicking and struggling courageously as Sophie could, she knew undeniably: the stranger had trapped her.

"_Yes you will. You're mine now, Sophie. _" Howl glowered down at her drawn face, a salacious maliciousness playing at his mouth.

The colour bled from Sophie's face, along with all hope of escape. He gestured one arm into the air and they were gone.

* * *

**AN: **Reviews? Comments? I love all the stories of romance and portrayals of Howl as an arrogant self-indulgent fool, but a total push over when it comes to Sophie. However, I wanted to portray a darker Howl who really is a lecherous, sinful womanizer and a self absorbed Wizard who couldn't care less about anything, unless it involves inflating his ego.

Saotoshi thank you soooooo much for the brilliant beta job on my fic. *huggles to you* You've got eagle eyes for detail and have a steadfast grip on grammar; EXACTLY what I don't have. :D

_**DISCLAIMER: I didn't create Howl's Moving Castle, write the book, animate the movie or create the characters. I'm borrowing the characters to write for fun. I have no money so it's useless taking me to court. This disclaimers goes for all chapters I write for this story and another others I write for ff.**_


	2. Freedom

**Summary: **After paying off Fanny's debts in exchange for Sophie, Howl brings his new 'guest' back to his castle.

**Rating: **T for this chapter.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**2: Freedom**

Markl jumped when a thump reverberated through the rattling floorboards, and twisted round to see his Master struggling with some girl he'd just teleported into the kitchen with.

"Howl? What the hell have you done now?" Calcifer asked worriedly. "This don't look good Markl," the fire demon continued, throwing a side glance to the boy.

Howl peered down his slim and perfectly straight nose to the slip of an ugly mouse he'd caught, anticipating the girl to beg and cry as the pitiful animal she was. The twisted smile on his lips dropped away when he saw the defiant fire of her eyes lashing up at him.

"Let GO!" Sophie screeched, suddenly aware she was no longer in the hat shop, confused and horrified that such a vile, and surely, gay Wizard had purchased her life so easily. Was her life so worthless?

"Very well," the Wizard leered, twisting her arm a little tighter behind her back, the wince of pain hissing from her mouth amusing him greatly. Only then, did he release Sophie abruptly, sniggering melodiously as she crashed hard on the filthy, dust covered wooden floor.

"_Howl, who is she?"_ Calcifer questioned, feeling a little sorry for the scrawny thing in a heap at the floor. "Did you kidnap her?"

"She's the new cleaning lady for the pig sty you complained about last night. I've soiled my clothes and wasted enough time on this poor excuse of a woman," Howl spoke with sheer arrogance. He picked a strand of Sophie's hair from his lapel like it was a dirty tissue and flicked it with disdain into Calcifer. "Make me some hot water for my bath." And with that, he shot up the stairs without another glance at the devastation he'd brought into his home.

--x--

All was quiet. The room hung in wavering shadows, the only light cast in golden circles on the floor from the hearth.

Sophie lay on her side, curled in a tiny trembling ball. The tip of her toes to the root of her hairs ached, frozen as in death at the nightmare her mother had cruelly sold her to. _I'm not going to cry. I'm NOT going to cry, _Sophie told herself in spite of the hot streaks staining her cheeks, the salty trickles in her mouth: at least she had not broken down in front of the 'blond-arexic'! With all her might, she wished, prayed, that if she kept her eyes closed long enough, she would wake from the hell surrounding her: that she would open her eyes and return to her heavenly mundane existence.

The Neanderthal Wizard was gone for the moment, and this was probably her only hope for escape. Slowly, blinking wildly, Sophie flitted her heavy lids open. Her vision blurred with tears, the darkness undulating like waves before her. Nothing was visible until her sight adjusted to the bleak surroundings. There was a mouldy stench to the place, possibly dirty laundry or a room that had not been aired for months, years even.

A sudden throbbing gripped her arm, and Sophie snapped her eyes down to see a deep scarlet bruise appearing on the wrist, in the shape of a hand. "My arm," Sophie whimpered, finding the strength to stand and ignore the violent physical proof of her captivity: her heart weeping at the realization of her plight. Her body unconsciously moved towards the only source of heat in the room to find a little warmth and comfort.

"Lady, that looks kinda bad," Calcifer peered up from the hearth, his fiery brows pinched with sympathy. His flames orange laced with purple compassion for the clearly unattractive and unblessed girl. Even the softness of the night shadows was unkind to her.

Sophie halted mid stride, her hurt and anguish forgotten the instant that the fire before her _spoke_.

"You, you can talk!" Sophie gasped in shock, her eyes bright as headlights. _GOD! This place is as crazy as that senseless bully and excuse for a man, _Sophie hissed privately. "I-I have to get out of here. I can't stay here with that pompous ass!" Sophie begged to the lick of flames surging towards her. _"Where is the door? Please tell me!"_

"You're nowhere near as pretty as Master Howl's other girlfriends at all," a high-pitched voice drifted from behind Sophie. She spun around to see a young cherub faced boy no older than ten years old. He was standing at the bottom of a staircase shroud in darkness, scratching his head, dressed in a white nightgown: angelic and naive.

"_I am NOT his girlfriend!"_ Sophie screamed shaking furiously in humiliation and disgust at the thought. "I have to leave! Where's the door, please?"

Markl pointed down the stairs to the entry, staring at the strange woman.

Sophie scrambled down the stairs, jerking on the door knob. "OPEN DAMN YOU!" She shrieked, banging her hands wildly on the door.

Seeing the girl in such a state, Calcifer offered kindly, "Er, Lady, I don't think you want to go out into the Wastes at this time of night. Besides, if Howl says you're to stay…"

But the girl had wrenched the door open and was gone. The open door slammed onto the iron stair railing, streaks of brown green scenery still visible outside in the coming twilight, as the castle plodded on.

-x-

Sophie fell with a brutal thump from the moving claptrap. Her face ate into the dirt from the impact of her fall, but she didn't care. She was desperate to run and did so, not looking back at what she'd fallen from or where she was fleeing to.

"_Please, please someone help me!" _This landscape was foreign to her. Desolate hillside far removed from anything living, no houses or lights in sight. She ran, her feet eating into the ground, heading towards the setting blood red sun sinking over the horizon; her heart pounding agonizingly against her ribs, her lungs flaring hot with exertion. The air was stale and windless as she ran. _I'm safe! _Sophie cried silently, too prematurely.

"You should know better than to run, servant girl," an ice-cold voice lashed from behind her, as something coiled around her waist lifting her clear off the ground. "I'll decide where you go or when you'll leave the castle: that's if you leave at all," a ghostly, sensual voice whispered into her ear. A pungent aroma of flowers and heady musk smothered Sophie. She kicked her legs but they were set like stone, trapped by a spell. A wet, heated sensation swept over the shell of her ear and Sophie swung her head away to evade it. It was the Wizard!

She craned up to see his hair fluttering as a gold halo framing his face under the pink twilight. His eyes an intense smouldering sea green blaze of intimacy that stopped her breath in her throat. _"How dare you kiss me?"_ Sophie spat rancorously at him. How she wanted to scratch out those eyes that disturbed her so, but her arms were pinned to her side.

The Wizard smiled nefariously with exaggerated slowness. "Well, the little critter has a spark of fire after all. I see your life has been far more sheltered than I imagined, if you thought _that_ was a kiss." His voice was hypnotic, hung with purpose and bravado.

"_This _is a kiss," he murmured into her ear as lovers whispered sweet nothings to each other. His sensual lips hovered over Sophie's, hesitating if but to tease her.

Sophie opened her mouth to shout abuse, instantly, quieted by the moist heat of his lips on hers. Her cry was lost in his embrace. Yet her eyes remained wide open, glaring at the beguiling, vacuous eyes that met hers, that closed to her, to fully savour and claim her mouth with his.

Sophie's head spun, seeing stars and sparkles of pink and white. His hot, sweet tasting lips surged skilfully over hers as his tongue explored the soft caverns in her mind. _The arrogant, disgusting bastard!_ Sophie hollered to herself and struggled furtively against him, refusing to respond to his kiss. Such a loathsome _thing_ taking her first kiss, to have such a callous beast steal it from her was unbearable!

"_Don't pretend to fight what every woman in three kingdoms only dreams about, my little rat,"_ the Wizard murmured against her lips. _"You're only a woman after all, and no one can resist the kiss of Howl Jenkins Pendragon, a kiss sweeter than heaven's wine or a flower's nectar,_" he finished, brushing his lips over Sophie's before taking her again.

_Bite!_

The Wizard jerked his face from his _perceived_ latest conquest. _"You sewer rat!"_ He snapped acidly under his breath, breathing hard and licking the droplets of blood on his lower lip, where Sophie had sunk her teeth into.

Sophie's eyes shrunk to pinpricks in her ashen face. Crimson trickles glimmered on her quivering mouth in the newly risen moon. As she glared venom at the Wizard, the blaze in his eyes and taunt set of his mouth sent a chill of fear down her spin. Still, the bravery within her heart shone through and Sophie forced out in a shaking voice, "Y-You don't have a right to touch me! It serves you right for casting your cowardly spells to stop my fight!"

The hidden tenderness died in the Wizard's eyes, filling with hurt and chagrin. "You like biting, do you? Behaving like an animal? Then I shall _treat_ you like one." He shot his head at preternaturally speed into the hollow of Sophie's neck and bit, hard. Gnashing her soft pink flesh between his perfect whitened teeth, relishing the victory over the classless wallflower, who DARED flee from him, AND deny his amorous embrace. He wanted to dominate her and the instant gratification of the physical wound he inflicted on her enthralled him. He wanted to punish her, hurt her, to hear Sophie shriek at him: to show some inkling of emotion towards him, and to have Sophie beg him to stop. And he, Howl Jenkins Pendragon in his mercy, would do so…if she pleaded. He didn't understand the intensity of his actions, but he didn't care. He bit, harder, closed his eyes to the gentle baby powder scent of her skin. The first drop of scarlet tang trickled into his mouth. He was lost to the quiet and bliss of her warmth: but the scream he craved, anticipated, never came. Sophie's stoic, stubborn silence overwhelmed him, and his sadistic abuse of her.

The Wizard pulled away, his teeth marks clearly embedded deep red in Sophie's pale skin. Her head was turned from him, her eyes shut tight to block out the monstrosity of him, from the barbaric Wizard _she'd_ turned him to. A shaft of pain thrust into his non-existent heart at the sight of her. He grimaced at the heartbreaking mask over Sophie's face, and a rush of self-repugnance washed over him, at the dirty handed use of his magic to overpower her. His hand shook and without logic, the Wizard raised his slim hand, longing to caress and wipe the desolateness from Sophie's crestfallen face. The ball of his index finger nearly touched her pursed lips when Sophie's eyes opened. Instinctively, he dropped his hand.

"_You're the animal, Howl."_ Sophie's voice was low, distant, as if she wished herself to the ends of the world, just to distance herself from him: the light in her eyes dead and flat as her expression. She refused to meet his gaze, instead, staring forlornly to the fiery stars in the dark canopy of the night.

_Howl_. The Wizard repeated in awe to himself. It was the first time he'd heard her say his name. Though, his delightful and sublime name from her lips sounded like a foul curse, an evil. But why did it bother him so whether she said his name or not? She was an ugly drain rat! He shook his head, waking himself from the momentary weakness and lapse into conscience. "The spell is to ensure you don't run from me my _sewer_ pet. You are bound to me, whether you accept it or not. You belong to me, by a contract that is more binding than blood," he said in a controlled, silky voice. "I'll treat you the way you deserve to be treated."

Still, Sophie's eyes pointed to the stars, resigned to anything Howl had to say, or do to her.

"I'll forgive you this time…_Sophie_," Howl forced her name out, each syllable making his pulse leap. "Maybe, the shock of your mother giving you up is a bit much for an inane thing like you. Your home is in my castle now, don't try to leave me again."

With a simple click of his slender fingers, Howl, with Sophie in his arms, vanished into the night, taking his little mouse back to his castle and world.

* * *

**AN: **Thank you heaps to everyone kind enough to review for the prologue, and gave me the motivation to continue with this. And thanks to everyone who put this on their alerts and favs. :D Anyhoo, second chapter is up and I'd really appreciate any comments, concrits and what you think of Howl baby. :D The lovely Misty Voughn is helping with ideas for this fic so I gotta say thanks to her.


	3. Inconsolable

**Summary:** It's the morning after Sophie tried to flee from the castle. She wakes up thinking it's all a bad dream, and that life as a lonely hat maker isn't that bad after all.

**Rating for chapter: **T

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**3: Inconsolable**

Her lids felt like lead.

_It is only a bad dream, Sophie Hatter,_ Sophie consoled herself. _Open your eyes and it will only be another lonely, uneventful day at father's hat shop._

Sophie had never been more thankful for her nondescript existence, compared to the too lifelike nightmare she had dreamt, of belonging to a depraved man-orexic Wizard. Making hats was a blessed fairy tale sprinkled with sunshine and iced with larking songbirds measured up against that dream!

Wearily, Sophie tossed her unusually heavy covers off herself, grudgingly prying her eyes open to pitch black around her. A vapour of dust flooded her nostrils, choking in her throat. She spluttered in convulsion, clawing in the darkness over unfamiliar velvet covers, stumbling off the filthy duvet and falling with a heavy thud to the carpeted floor.

"Where am I?" Sophie winced in protest, feeling her way along the bumpy floor, towards the slant of pale light under what she presumed was the door. It was not until she fumbled for the knob, creaked it open, that she released the breath she had held to avoid inhaling the dusty, stagnant stench of the room. She squinted, adjusting her eyes to her surroundings, walking shakily down the dimly lit narrow hall to the source of the light. Disorientation, fatigue and dread weighed heavily over her shoulders, as she groggily steadied herself against the wall.

"Where am I?" she whispered again, goose bumps suddenly pricking at the skin from the tips of her toes to her hairline.

Her pulse froze to ice. Horrified, Sophie looked down and bit down the wail threatening to burst from her lips. _"Where are my clothes?" _She was naked save a man's flimsy white peasant shirt. The ties hung over the plunging neckline that ended above her waist, the hem billowed over her knees.

"_No no no!"_ she howled bitterly, salty tears trickling down her thin neck. Her head shook convulsively, stricken by a sickening curl of dread in her stomach, that her innocence had been taken. Her legs started running of their own accord, sending Sophie blindly hurtling around a corner. It was then Sophie halted abruptly, seeing the familiar hearth, the flickering orange crimson glow arcing along the grey walls, undulating into the raked roof.

_It wasn't a dream! _She fought back the tears racking her body, and collapsed in a heap at the landing of the stairs. _"Please, please. HE couldn't have touched me last night!" _Sophie bawled into her knees, curling into the wall and sinking deep into the shadows. _"Please tell me he didn't…!"_ Feeling physically and emotionally raped, the strength drained from every pore of her skin. Despite her daze, Sophie knew, the state of her undress, and waking up in a stranger's bed could only point to one truth. Trembles rippled up Sophie's spine, her blood boiled in anger, plagued with shame and repugnance at the _animal_, responsible for taking _everything_ from her.

A voice from below floated up to where Sophie lay. "I've never seen Master Howl like this, Calcifer. Who is she?" It was the high-pitched voice of a young boy. "Did you see the way he flew after her last night, messy hair and all?"

Instantly, Sophie hugged her knees harder to her chest, letting the hot streaks roll down her cheeks: listening intently, shaking, and a succession of blunt thumps pounding mercilessly at the back of her head.

"Yeah, kiddo. I saw all right. And I don't like it. The fool has done some stupid things in his time, but this takes the cake, Markl. I already have enough to worry about with this curse! _Cleaning Lady_ my flaming non-existent foot!" responded a sharp, flippant voice. "I liked it better when he simply wooed the ladies, had his way with them and left them where he found them. Bringing one home and expecting us to keep her here…" the sharp voice trailed off as if in disgust.

"_So-phie_," the boy's voice lilted as if singing a rhyme. "I like the name…"

"Yeah, unfortunately, that's all we know about her. Howl didn't exactly stop and tell us her life story before he took her upstairs last night, Markl. The only thing he said about her this morning before he left was _'Wake her up later, Calcifer. Make sure she does what I paid her for!'_ " The cutting voice transformed effortlessly to imitate the smooth, richer timber of Sophie's captor.

"No problems! I will," assured the boy, excitedly. "I'm sure Sophie must be Master Howl's girlfriend or something! There's no other explanation! What other woman has been in his room, right? I'll wake her! Then, we can ask her all the questions we want!" he chirped in anticipation, thumping sounds echoing from the hearth to the foot of the stairs.

Sophie jerked upright, grasping the situation and staggered back in the direction she had fled.

"Markl, wait!" said the pointed voice from the hearth.

"What, Calcifer?" the boy asked with impatience.

"I don't know what he did to Sophie last night, Markl. So, please be nice and…knock before going in, okay? Let's try and make her first morning with us more pleasant than her first night was." The voice hedged with sadness and kindness.

"I will, Calcifer."

By now, Sophie had dived back into the bed; in the room she knew with all certainty belonged to the wizard. _He_ must have carried her here after she tried to escape. After that putrid kiss, _he_ had claimed…why couldn't she remember the rest?

When the knock came at the door, Sophie's tears had soaked into the pillows, her eyes swollen red, her sobs audible to the young boy through the wood. No matter how nice and gentle Markl tried to be- as Calcifer had instructed- Sophie was inconsolable.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone who reviewed my last chapter, put this on their favs and alerts. I'm sorry it's taken longer than expected to update this story. I'm moving to Japan end of this month and have a lot to do - but wanted to update before I left. Also, I'm trying to write a few stories at once. I really don't want to give up on this fic, so I'm going to try and keep it going by posting drabble'esque chapters. This way, I'm sure to be able to update regularly. Anyhoo, I love comments, reviews and suggestions on how to improve. Reviews also make me happy and lets me know that people want to read more.

I've rated this chapter T for the 'suggestion' of something happening to Sophie.

**Disclaimer: same as in the previous chapters.**


	4. Diminished

**Summary:** The morning after Sophie is taken back to the castle by Howl, Markl and Calcifer try to comfort Sophie and they realize there is only one way to do so.

**Rating for chapter: **T

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**4: Diminished**

Sophie's first morning in the castle was the bleakest Markl had ever witnessed in his short life: the sight of her a stark contrast to the rainbows dancing outside the window and peachy warm glow of the sun. How the sweetest hyacinth bouquet had gone rancid and the lightest face dimmed to sinister darkness for her.

What had made Sophie think she wanted life to be interesting? The man had looked at her, laughing rather pityingly. "I only want to buy you a drink. Don't look so scared." Even then, he had called her a 'little grey mouse.' Would he have ensnared her here, now, if she had accepted his proposal on May Day?

_A dashing specimen with fine delicate features_, she had furtively admired. Her heart had fluttered and dizzied at the idea of him. That night in her dreams, her heart had soared for him. She'd dreamt of the elegant stranger taking her away from her lonely alcove at the hat shop. And, the Wizard had indeed, swept her away.

Sophie Hatter, eldest of three sisters should have known better. No good ever comes from whimsical fairy tales and dreams: the Wizard was proof of that. It was quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three.

**-x-**

"Sophie, would you like something to eat?" The hedged voice pierced her cocoon of melancholy. She gave no response, frozen in an impenetrable silence before the hearth.

Markl, incapable of consoling Sophie, had waited patiently outside Howl's bedroom door, until she emerged shrouded in shadows from the room, wearing her crumpled grey frock from the previous day, her hair a tussled mass. He peered up into her swollen blood reddened eyes, gleaming with liquid sorrow. Markl's little heart splintered at the vision, and dared not question Sophie after that. He simply took Sophie by the hand, squeezed it hard sympathetically with his tubby fingers and led her down to stairs to sit by the fire, where she sat, mute, until high tea.

Calcifer and Markl exchanged fervent glances, panicking discretely as Sophie refused all food and beverages they offered. Markl wondered more than once if Sophie was breathing. While Calcifer scoured her vacuous mask for hints of what his self-absorbed friend might have perpetrated the night before.

Under their vigil, Sophie hung her head like a wilted flower bled of life before its time. Her cascade of hair gleamed like a golden orange stream and winked in spite of the wild mess of strands. The supple youth of her skin gone, washed out like a ragged old sheet. Faded brown glassy eyes stared unseeingly at the hearth: only an apparition of the feisty woman taking flight from the castle yesterday lingered.

"The rumours are true," Sophie finally rasped in a distant, aching voice, in a tone as numb as her weary limbs ached.

Markl, ecstatic the mute Sophie had murmured her first words replied eagerly, hoping to prolong her audible return to life. "What rumours, Sophie?" He chirped, bobbing enthusiastically, grinning ear to ear.

Sophie flinched, the act of drawing air stabbed and twisted into her chest. "Wizard Howl," her chest convulsed, her mouth expelled a hiss of odium: the Wizard's name. "He is heartless, his blood brittle ice in his veins." She continued to mouth soundlessly, but grief for Sophie possessed no voice to sing its sadness. Grief knew simply of overflowing tears that sprung to Sophie's eyes, that she squeezed shut, shamefully burying her face in her palms to hide the public emotional break.

Her shoulders bowed as a weeping willow. "I-I want to go –" Sophie's voice failed, her throat parched and wooden. The cruel— and undeniable memory— that Fanny, her stepmother, had effortlessly sold her off like one of the hats at her shop, left Sophie destitute in the wilderness of life, with no destination to return to, just a destiny to escape from. _Where?_ She scoured frantically in the recesses of her mind. "…home." She pledged the words through quivering lips, vowing to create a home, somewhere, somehow for herself. "I want to go _h-home_."

Markl's smile upturned, further conversation suspended by Sophie's startling declaration. So innocent was the youth, it never dawned on him she was captive in his _home_. His doe eyes appealed to Calcifer's sharp transparent wavering ones.

"_L-o-o-k_ Lady…" Forgetting whom he was addressing, Calcifer's drawl took on its customary snarky quality exclusively reserved for verbal duels with the uppity Wizard. "I mean, Sophie," his tenor sweetened and warmed to titanium melting temperatures. "I think you might be staying with us for a while. Maybe, _this_ can be your new home?" Calcifer offered kindly, almost feeling his words. Ordinarily, he would have exchanged the word 'home' for 'pig pen', 'dump', 'spider-infested hovel' for the castle, but they wouldn't have had the same '_Come and live with us Umph!'_ to persuade Sophie to stay.

"Markl and I could use some company. That overdressed peacock is never around anyhow." Calcifer's smile filled with wavering fiery fangs, his lilt scarily gregarious. The spectacle of the girl, as petrified as a prehistoric grey boulder, vexed him more than he showed. He hadn't missed Sophie flinching, as if lashed by a whip, at the Wizard's name. _What did you do last night, Howl?_ The fire demon questioned privately, troubled.

"I want to go home." Sophie persisted, her tone hard, unwavering. "You can't keep me here," she declared to the balled hands in her lap, her tears enduring, despite her battle to conquer them.

Calcifer's exhale fractured one of his logs with a crisp _snap_! Something about this girl cooled his scorching flames, set him afire on a gentler plain. The set of Sophie's ashen face told him unmistakably, just a single soul was capable, and would, confine her to the castle. "Sophie, Markl and me won't keep you here…except, _someone_ might," Calcifer cautioned. "Isn't that right, Markl?" The flicker reigniting in Sophie's eyes struck the fire demon as well: that she might be his last chance to break the curse. However, not at the cost of her well-being, he admitted with absolute regret. Surprisingly, he was chartering the undiscovered sweet regions of his heart, because of Sophie.

"_Well_..." Markl recalled his Master's mandate of keeping Sophie, period. Yet for the life of him, he couldn't understand the logic of restraining a cleaning lady in the castle, especially if she didn't want the job, or to clean. _Maybe the castle is too filthy, repellent, and scary with all the spiders, caked layers of slime growing on the walls…that's why Sophie is very upset and crying?_ He conjectured, scratching the back of his head wondering how to cheer Sophie up; ultimately, to convince her to stay. He kicked the dust from the stone floor to swirl around him in frustration. "What did you do to Master Howl anyway, Sophie?" He averted Calcifer's questions, not wanting to lie: and lying as his Master instructed, was bad. He pouted, dejected at the prospect of losing Sophie. It would have been lots of fun making a new friend, as he had a total of none.

Hence, the fire demon and young apprentice formed an unspoken pact to free Sophie. They hadn't contemplated as far as the Wizard's return to the castle. The heartrending vision of Sophie wounded— like a cornered defenceless creature— fuelled them with greater impetus than the fear, the repercussions, and risk of trying.

Markl milled around the castle, preoccupying himself practicing his spells while the castle scuttled over the Wastes towards Market Chipping. The exact opposite direction the Wizard directed him to travel. Calcifer slumbered, surreptitiously watching Sophie's immovable slumped body. The roasting heat of his tendrils blazed, licking his logs and illuminating the small living area with arcs of lilac and vermillion. However, Sophie's visage stayed tomblike, purple lids hooded her from the reality of her prison. _"I'm dirty…stained. I'm unclean,"_ was all she repeated despairingly, hauntingly. Eyes downcast, fixed on her splayed hands in her lap: an occasional salty droplet twinkling as it landed on them. She seemed repelled by her own skin, her own body: possibly, of herself.

Whether it was the trauma of being uprooted from her life or the imagined horrors of the night before that bound Sophie in the one position, from dusk until the pink sun sunk between the mossy hills of Wastes, she didn't stir until the square dial of the door squeaked.

Markl leapt from his chair, eyes peeled to the door, a clutter of parchments scattering to the floor; his noble courage to free Sophie hightailing to a kingdom far away. His spine from the lower back up to his neck rattled, his heart hammered mercilessly, watching for his Master's shiny black boot to appear through the door. Calcifer, dormant and alert, lay in an undulating flat wave over his logs, hopeful for the best of the worst.

The beautiful beast was home.

The castle was skirting Market Chipping.

It shouldn't have been.

* * *

**AN:** Hi everyone. Got this update up before Xmas!! YEAH! Sorry for the delay but I'm totally buggered from moving and work. Unfortunately no holidays during Xmas in Japan. **T.T** Thanks to everyone who took the time to review the last chapter and gave me the impetus to update before 2009. Thanks to the all the 'alerters' too. :) If you've read the book you might recognize some quotes from it in the first half of my chapter, that's written in a similar'ish voice as the book. Love to hear comments and ideas on how to improve, what's good or bad about the fic so far? Next chapter Sophie faces Howl for the first time after _that_ night. Did he or didn't he??

_**Merry Christmas and HAPPY New Year everyone.**_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything to do with Howl's Moving Castle but the plot to this story. Anything you might recognize belongs to D.W.J. or Studio Ghibli. Same goes for all chapters I write for this fic.


	5. Hope

**AN:** Saotoshi thank you soooooo much for the brilliant beta job on my fic. *bows humbly*. You've certainly got a great eye for details and a genuis with grammar: the two EXACT qualities I lack. :D

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**5: Hope **

Hope; it died a quiet death when the castle door groaned open.

The Wizard's first nimble and graceful step into the castle had the impact of an earth-devouring tremor. Every featherlike foot fall a fatalistic boom.

Calcifer's eyes tapered to fine slits of scrutiny, at the lithesome Wizard.

Markl squatted on his heals plucking up the scrolls, sneaking a peek through his lashes, feverish with guilt, tingling with boyish trepidation. He was positive his Master wouldn't be too upset he had conspired to free Sophie. After all, he had been studying his spells really hard, as instructed. Nevertheless, his body's self-preservation instincts kicked in and it crawled under the table of its own accord, crushing the parchments to his chest.

Sophie jumped through her skin into the rafters: though her body, sapped bone dry of strength, couldn't follow suit. She felt Howl's eyes feeling over every inch of her skin, though they were not. She felt his lips grazing over hers, though they were not. She could feel his long slender fingers creep along the nape of her neck, though they were not: her mind bound by him. There was naught left of her for him to plunder: forcibly or otherwise.

Howl sported his ecru harlequin overstated jacket that twinkled with lavish silver threads, competing with the sunshine blond mane on his head that gleamed, despite the din of the castle. The Wizard daintily pressed the door closed behind him with the palm of his hand. His mouth set in a serene curve. A softness exuded from his alabaster skin, was it confidence or bravado that bathed him? His head hung coquettishly, veiled by the curtain of hair.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

Then Markl's heart stalled with the footsteps behind Sophie. His chocolate eyes grew bulbous, forgetting to breathe, taking in the tableau of Sophie hunched while his Master stood sophisticated, soaring and domineering, behind her. Both figures silhouetted in a gold aura from Calcifer. His Master turned, seemingly with exaggerated slowness, and shot Markl an indolent, boyish masterpiece of a smile, that permanently tore any girl's heart out mid beat. Yet to Markl, the smile was an alarm clanging resoundingly in his ears, signalling peril.

"_Markl,_ my faithful apprentice. Pray tell, do you seek to be a foot stool that you cower under the table on my return?" Howl's voice was a romantic autumn night's breeze, pleasant and chilling.

The lad sprung to his feet, heaping the bundle of spells on the table to brush himself off. "W-Welcome home, Master Howl. You surprised me and I dropped the spells on the floor. I'm sorry," Markl literally squeaked, his lob-sided smile twitching with mortification.

"Leave the kid alone, Howl." Calcifer cut the potential abuse of power between any Master and apprentice. "He knows how precious those outdated things are to you," Calcifer chided with familiar contempt. "Home early then today, eh?" Calcifer queried feigning innocence, lapping flames on to his top log.

"My hand was forced, Calcifer. I must safe guard my belongings, if my trusted companions refuse to abide by my wishes during my absence. And confound it, _why_ is my abode in the same state as when I departed this morning?" he asked aggravated, striding demurely past Sophie, and stoked Calcifer's fire with the iron poker. "Where is the cleaner I acquired?" he persisted with condescension to no one in particular.

"You know perfectly well where Sophie is, Howl. What's gotten into you? You drag the poor thing home, and then pretend she isn't here?" Calcifer seized the opportunity to defuse the confrontation before it ignited. "If that's how you woo the ladies, **_god help us all!_**" he slipped in a joke, adding a backhanded compliment for good measure, delivered with a dose of heavily coated cynicism.

"A girl of no significance doesn't warrant my attention, my friend. My wiles are reserved for well designated muses of consummate taste, conversation, charm and wit." Howl's diatribe rolled off his tongue, with precise and hurtful eloquence.

The rain of insults; the downpour of ridicule, the mindless, maddening, endless gratuitous attacks split Sophie's fragile, throbbing forehead. Her fingers punctured through the aged grey material in her lap, exposing the white pantaloons. The very idea of him made her seethe brimstone. "I'm guileless and bland with no conversation or blessed with wit, because _my_ designation in life was to be _a hat maker_ in Market Chipping. Not here! That's _my_ designation due to my _breeding_! What's your designation, oh mighty Wizard Howl?" Her words were retaliatory and acerbic. "_Pray tell,_" Sophie mimicked his words, her tone thick with derision and enmity. "Explain why a cave dwelling Neanderthal boasts more appeal, decorum and goodness in his dung infested, filthy mud caked toe nail than _you?_" She sprang up to her feet, glaring venom up at the arresting figure dwarfing her. Her mind braced with steel, her heart a drum with fearlessness. If only the frail voice that delivered her verbal blow, rang as formidable.

Markl retreated to the safety under the table (his make shift bomb shelter) and slapped his over his eyes (that peeped through his fingers), that he he couldn't tear from the giant five foot four cleaning lady and diminutive six foot Wizard towering over her: intrigued. He couldn't help himself, beaming appreciatively – slipping in love with Sophie. He really did like her. Other women clamouring after his Master always acted giggly and stupid, but not Sophie.

_Sophie's definitely got more sparks than a fireworks explosion,_ Calcifer esteemed in chorus, observing the mental battle between the striking Herculean mouse and trounced prodigious Wizard.

Again, the lazy boyish masterpiece that stopped hearts in their wakes spread to Howl's thinning lips. His eyes boiled to a malevolent smoulder of emerald.

He stepped forward. Sophie's feet nailed themselves to the ground. Her toes curled in her boots rooting herself to the floor, while her body swayed backwards – her spirit valiant, her body yielding.

"You weren't as defiant last night," Howl's velvet voice was horribly rich and provocative, reminding Sophie of the trauma that had kept her crushed to the one spot since this morning. The enunciation, intimation of 'Sophie' made her name reek of a heinous, immoral crime. The self-loathing of her body washed over her. Tears brimmed in her bruised heart but not from her eyes. The only sign of weakness were her quivering lips. Stoically, Sophie held her breath to quell the hyperventilation pressing against her ribs.

Her eyes cut through his oily and slick mental manoeuvres, lightning flaring between them. _If I don't accept what he did, then it NEVER HAPPENED! _Sophie reassured herself bravely. Her fists whitened in the folds of grey material. _He can only hurt me if I allow him. _"I want to go home. You can't keep me here," her eyes threatened, incandescent in the gloom.

Howl's eyes rolled from her ashen cheeks to the shivering, partly askew lips. Like any predator, he could smell the weakness of his prey. For some reason, her pert nubile mouth drew him – an exotic fruit, succulent and remarkably tempting.

The split second Sophie suspected the pornographic thoughts behind Howl's eyes, she gulped in much needed air, and struck the licentious insinuation off his face. The force of the blow cracked across his cheekbone.

Markl "_eeped!"_ His eyes watering from the mere resonance of the strike, his Master was sure to exact retribution.

Sophie shrieked in disgust, "How dare you regard me so shamelessly?"

Howl kept his face inclined at the position Sophie had struck it to. A sinful, blood-curdling chuckle erupted from his chest. His blond strands hung over his half cast lids, his pale, luminescent jade eyes sliding back to the lips he owned, along with the rest of Sophie's body. Flipping back his hair like a fashion model, Howl rubbed the balls of his fingers over his reddened cheek. He titled his chin high in order to look further down on his property, his eyes continuing their assessment of Sophie's every curve, stripping her naked.

Her wall of defence crumbled against psychological brutality. Sophie retreated to the railing, her eyes reduced to pin pricks: speechless at the inhuman, profligate Wizard.

"Typical female: acquiesce one day, play coy the next." He stoked at the hearth, the broad expanse of his back to her. "So why not leave during my absence, then? Or possibly, you stayed to bid farewell to your _Master_?" he prodded reprehensibly. "You cherish being in the service of a well heeled and powerful Lord. Am I not correct?" he lilted with a snide, sinister smile lighting his face.

Sophie pried her bound fingers off the railing, her knees shaking at the Wizard's presence. An acidic heat stung her eyes: tears, once upon a time Sophie's, now the Wizard's, closest ally. _Don't cry! He's not worth crying about, Sophie! _"You're nothing to me BUT a heel! You're nothing BUT a bloodless, heartless cretin, a walking corpse! As for last night…l-last n-n…" she wheeled from him, the salty streaks all-consuming, her body bent over the railing. She wiped viciously at them with the hem of her sleeve. _I can't defend what I don't remember! Where did that night flee to in my mind? _

"…Oh gracious golly, touchy aren't we?" Howl snorted with merry satisfaction, victorious. He swivelled on his boot heel, and leant on the side of the hearth, arms crossed over his chest. Through the heady shadows, his words gutted a wound from her ribs through to her stomach. "Needless to say, I've sampled more succulent a… _morsel_."

Sophie clutched at her stomach, clamping her mouth closed. Terrified the meager contents of her stomach would escape. _He didn't! NO! _She denied hopelessly, shunning her own misery. However, the back of her mind steadfastly acquiesced to his allusion.

"Sophie?" Markl's anxious voice asked from under the table, touching Sophie with shards of hope through the Wizard's darkness. _It's only my body, just…my body…_ "You'll never be able _touch_ me," she murmured repeatedly, the chants coming to a crescendo as she prayed for might to confront the Wizard face on. However, her mind was stronger than her heart of glass, shattering in on itself. The idea of casting eyes on him sickened and incapacitated her.

"What's Sophie talking about, Howl? What did you do last night?" Calcifer leapt high on his logs and glowered suspiciously around the hearth to his pretty friend.

"A gentleman never kisses and tells," Howl leered unhelpfully, sashaying to the front of the hearth to throw a few logs onto the fired up demon.

"A_. Gen-tle. _MAN?" Calcifer spewed more flames on his blaze, roaring with contempt. "Don't try to bribe me with logs, Howl! What did you do to Sophie?" Calcifer slapped the offering of logs, sending them bouncing to the floor with a dull thud.

For an instant, confusion surged over Markl's face, seconds later shifting to a child's rose coloured interpretation of the conversation. "Master Howl _kissed_ Sophie?" Markl blushed (at the idea a kiss) crimson at his Master, stomping his feet. "I knew it! You ARE his girlfriend!" he flustered to Sophie, bouncing with fervour and delight from his vantage point. He bound over to Sophie and hugged her around the waist, tight. He couldn't control it. His Master had a girlfriend. Moreover, _HE_ Markl, had a friend, too, now. _They fought and that's why Sophie is crying!_ He congratulated himself on the revelation, and promised to cheer up his new friend.

Sophie spun around in disgust – expecting the Wizard- ready to pounce and slash him to shreds. Instead, she jolted violently to discover huge, tender and true shimmering eyes pleading ecstatically up at her. The vision of Markl's saintly face, sparkling bliss and affection mollified the rage scalding in her veins. _How could such a naive cherub live...here?_ With his simple gesture, Markl had firmly patched a bandage over her battered emotions.

"I'll keep you safe here, Sophie, I promise. _Please don't go, Sophie._ I don't know why, but I like you so much._ Please." _Markl implored, nuzzling his face into her stomach. "You're in my heart now. You _can't_ go."

"Markl…sweetie," Sophie sobbed, torn. Shimmering silver streaks mingled bitter hatred for the boy's Master with fondness for the apprentice. Markl was the supreme escape from the older, malicious slick enigma before her, hell bent on tearing her apart — flesh to bone— physically and mentally.

"Why am I here?" she suppressed the unearthly weariness in her voice, pressing her cheek into the mop of Markl's hair, imagining strolling carefree, through floral pastures with him. He shouldn't have to bear witness to this altercation. Surely, the Wizard, his Master would appreciate this fact, and shield Markl from his evil ways.

"You're a mere business transaction, my little mouse. I was slaying a few birds and pandering to an upstart fire demon. Calcifer injured my tender disposition referring to my cosy abode as a 'pigsty'; your mother was laden with a stepdaughter; you were merely spoiling time with your existence. Your absence will not be missed, rest assured. The ideal candidate for my employ," Howl expounded in a clerical tenor, Arctic and unfeeling.

Chortling, strangled noises of disbelief echoed in the hearth. "Diddums Howl, I never knew you were so sensitive. There, _there_," Calcifer quipped patting Howl on his forearms with mock empathy. In all their years together, the fire demon had yet to witness this sinister manifestation in the Wizard. Something had bubbled and stirred in his friend: for the better or worse. Whether it was due to the ageing curse, he wasn't sure. He really liked Sophie's spark. But it would be corrupt to confine an untainted girl here. "Maybe you should let her go if she doesn't want to stay, Howl?" Calcifer wiped his undulating brow, hissing mournfully at the idea. "Poor Sophie—"

"I did not pay for an emotional 'pauper' or otherwise, Calcifer. Nor did I pay for a 'slap happy vixen'. I paid for a debt, and received a cleaner, a discarded daughter, in return for my generosity." Howl oozed pedantically, flicking the bangs fringing his eyes.

"I won't do it, you can't make me!" Sophie interjected icily, fixing animosity to his unflappable gaze: ice on ice, shuttering her ears to his indomitable slurs, hugging Markl harder to her. The Wizard wouldn't crush her spirit this easily.

Howl exhaled, agitated with impatience at the flow of the conversation. "Very well, go if you will," he gestured his hands dismissively towards the door. "_I _can't make you stay. Nor should I have need to encroach on an unwilling little chit."

Sophie's jaw unhinged, eyes looming beacons of disbelief. A knot of gratitude twisted with rile, choking in her throat. Maybe he did possess a grain of humanity.

"_Lettie_ is by far sweeter on the eyes, a perfect substitute. She _will_ take your place. Out of the fountain of decency within me, I compensated dearly, munificently, for a cleaner. I wiped your family's monetary burden with my charity; freed your mother and sisters from a life-long and beyond death debt. My contract _will_ be honoured by a Hatter."

Sophie choked on her very breath — and misplaced appreciation— at the conniving Wizard's ingeniously cloaked conspiracy. The Wizard was cunning incarnate. Cajoling her, flaying her to slithers in front of Markl, and the lad was none the wiser. The young apprentice revered his Master's facade of integrity, respect and charity. To Markl, Howl's subversive offer to free Sophie set a halo on the Wizard's head.

Howl brushed a non-existent hair from his sleeve, inspecting his nails with equal apathy: dramatizing his tedium with Sophie's defiance and temerity. "Otherwise, there is always _Martha;_ I believe that's her name? She seems a very capable young lady, doesn't she? Disappointing really, that some lack the courage to uphold an _uncomplicated, undemanding _duty: to clean this humble abode." Howl swept his lithe arms in an arc around the tiny living area, elaborating his words. "Scuttle back to your little hat shop, then: be gone and out of my sight, my rat," he injected his tone with a lethal dose of poison.

Swivelling on air, Howl's back ended the conversation with his captive audience. He strode tall and blue-blooded. "I'll need some hot water for my bath now, Calcifer. It has been a rather trying welcome home this evening." He continued up the dusty stairs, pointing his elegant profile to the hearth, cool and triumphant. "After all, I can't make you stay. Can I, Sophie?"

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**AN:** AH! Got an update up. Happy new'ish year everyone. I've been sick and just got back to work today. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Makes a huge difference and gives me a warm fuzzy glow. Anyhoo, love any feedback especially on Howl. Calcifer yells out 'She likes my SPARK!' in the movie and I loved that line to no end - just had to add it in. :D C ya everyone.


	6. Ensnared

**Summary:** A continuation from the previous chapter. The beastly Wizard is curling his serpentine intentions around Sophie. After agreeing to set her free in exchange for her sisters, Howl leaves Sophie to deliberate over her fate. Will she give in to him so easily? And will she be able to escape from his conniving clutches?

**AN:** I want to sincerely thank the very talented Saotoshi, my wonderful beta for this fic. What would I do without you Sao? :)

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**6: Ensnared**

"You know Sophie, I think your hair is as soft as Master Howl's," Markl commented, running his brush through the satiny mass of Sophie's hair. "Master Howl never lets me brush his hair like you do!" he smiled then pouted with amusement. "I got to touch it once only when he was waiting for a softening ointment to dry on his hands," the apprentice recounted. "And I found a split end he wanted cut off quickly!" Markl chuckled at his Masters endless vanity. "Your hair is much prettier!" he complimented enthusiastically. _"Please don't tell him I told you that, okay? He might get mad at me,"_ Markl whispered behind cupped hands into Sophie's ear, a delicious secret glint lighting his eyes.

Every mention of the Wizard's name twisted the knife he'd left in her, digging deeper. She had to leave this place; but how? She had to warn Martha and Lettie; but how? Sophie hunched - a withered shadow of herself- on the stool by the hearth, attempting to untangle the web that bound her in the castle. Her mind churned frenetically, looking for a chink in the Wizard's cunning armor.

Calcifer wavered noiselessly, eyes speculative slits, pinpointing Sophie's every breath, every move she made, his flames rising with each heave of her chest.

Sophie's tears were spent, the bloodshot whites of her eyes manifesting her suffering. Markl, her earthly angel, prattled on happily since his Master ascended the stairs for his bath. She couldn't speak, hoping to sink the emotional carnage on the surface of her face. She wanted to shield the boy from his Master's true nature, for it would break his little heart. So, she merely nodded to Markl's suggestions. She wouldn't give up that easily on freedom. She would have it out with Howl. She belonged to nobody nor was she anyone's belonging!

"I know you and Master Howl will be happy again, Sophie," Markl chimed confidently, nuzzling his nose in the length of her hair. "I'll even comb your hair every morning if you like," he offered, parting the ginger curtain, revealing her cloaked face. The gaunt, red-rimmed eyes staring blindly at the boy bleached his face white- popping his effervescence. The grim set of Sophie's face made his lips shiver with recrimination.

A sob escaped Sophie's carefully guarded façade at _that _name. The words 'every morning'…she couldn't take another second! She keeled her face into her lap and weeping fits convulsed her body violently.

"Sophie, did I hurt you combing your hair? I-I'm sorry. I tried my best to be gentle. I-It's clean, too; the brush is! I got it from my room to make you pretty for Master Howl." He expounded at light speed to make amends for the hurt welled in her eyes, believing it was his fault. "I'll stop if you want me to! Don't be sad anymore, please!" He hid the offending brush behind his back, tears of empathy standing on his doe eyes. "Master Howl wouldn't want to see you sad, either! Right, Calcifer?"

"Master Howl can't see past his pointy nose long enough to see anyone else's shadow, kiddo." Calcifer watched the boy with intrigue; something about this girl was throwing the castle into chaos. _If only I can get the boy to quit saying that ratfink's name! Give Sophie a spat of peace at least!_ Calcifer quipped privately.

_Shame on yourself, Sophie Hatter!_ _It's not Markl's doing!_ Sophie reprimanded herself for losing control. Sophie Hatter, at no time, behaved so appallingly at the hat shop! Recovering hurriedly, she swept the hair back from her face with both hands. She sucked in a lung full of air and planted glorious mirth on her face- a makeshift joy brightening her expression. "I'm crying because I'm _happy, _Markl: to have you brushing my hair; taking care of me. No one's _ever_ looked after me," Sophie confessed, lamenting the factual reflection of her lonely existence. No one had even thought of thinking about thinking of doting on her.

"But now you have Master Howl!" the boy whooped exultantly, recovering from his blue in a flash.

Again, _the_ name struck the light off Sophie's face.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud!" _Markl, you useless short legged gitt_[_! _Calcifer blustered at the boy's blind spot to Sophie's acid-recoil to the Wizard's name. Then, the demon himself assumed a squeaky, super chipper voice. He beamed a big fangy grin, wanting to douse himself out in humiliation. "_I-I-I-I-I know_, why don't you go find a rib-_bon_ to tie up Sophie's hair, Markl? Go on boy! Go on!" Calcifer enthused, as if talking to an excited dog enticed by a bone. His fiery hands smacked on his logs to rev the boy up even more. "Right, Sophie?" He nudged, batting his translucent fiery lids at Sophie, who didn't miss a beat of his merciful ploy. "That's a _gooood_ boy!"

"Mmmm!" Sophie nodded- big dips of her chin, pursing her lips into a painful smile of agreement to Markl.

"Okay! I'm sure we have one somewhere in the castle." Markl scratched the back of his head, digging the caves of his mind for where he might have seen one. He dashed up the stairs.

The disguised delight on Sophie's face slipped into the shadows looming over her. She was quite exhausted yet mustered a genuine, thankful smile for the fire demon.

Calcifer crawled on all flames onto the edge of the hearth as far as he could without falling off. He sighed, peach roseate snowflakes of fire cascaded onto the floor. He quietly broached, "Sophie, why do you care what happens to Markl? We're strangers to you. _Go_, we'll be fine."

Sophie's chestnut eyes shimmered, mindful. "Why do you care what happens to me, Calcifer?" Her tone was delicate, searching.

Calcifer gulped, swallowing a lump of coal. "Touché." He sank down a little, popped and crackled peacefully, pondering to himself for a little while. Then he continued in a voice that wasn't quite his. "You're different, Sophie… To me, you're not a stranger. You're simply someone I'm yet to know," the sentiments flowed from the forsaken thumping lump hidden under his grate.

Sophie blushed, touched by the unabashed sincerity. "Thank you, Calcifer." She un-balled her pasty hands in her lap, stretching the cramp from her fingers. She was at ease with the fire demon, safe and warmed beside him. "Charity knows not of kin or foe. Markl's a child, Calcifer. He shouldn't have to brave the cruelties of…. I can't knowingly leave him exposed to...I couldn't bear if he became anything like…. " Sophie chewed on her lips and knitted her brows together at the monstrous imagining.

Calcifer's flames paled, tangerine tongues licking his logs contentedly, as the lump under his grate palpitated, hard. A glowing pink effete rainbow bloomed in the dark dungeon like kitchen in its wake. Sophie and the fire demon acknowledged each other in likeminded, amiable understanding.

_Pat. Pat. Pat._

Howl hopped daintily down the steps, his feet dancing on air. This time, a scarlet suit offset with a white shirt accentuated his sleek lines. His blonde hair swayed, cupped just right inwards under his jaw line. He beamed brilliantly at his old demon friend.

"My, having a jolly tête-à-tête, are we? From the colouring of your flames, one might mistake that you've fallen, Calcifer!" Howl intoned aghast, as if the idea was foul, ugly and stinky as rotting fish baked in the midday sun for far too long.

"We're in this together, you blonde-bombshell! Or has that slipped that bleach blonde mind of yours?" Calcifer implied, hitching a spiked brow to the Lothario Wizard. The Wizard in turn nailed his gaze on Sophie, who reverted to a fossilized rock at the Wizard's fustian entry.

Howl tugged on the cuff of his blinding white shirt, straightening his back at the same time. "That's simply impossible, my friend! Oh, but how refreshed and scintillated I feel after my long respite. Let's head for Market Chipping, shall we? I rather fancy a visit with Lovely Lettie. The lass has a dashing figure and complements me to a tea," the Wizard rattled on gaily, drowning Calcifer with a deluge of logs. "And you shall have your wish, Sophie," Howl's promissory tone doubled as a full-bodied threat. His hooded lids revealed nothing of the coiling deliberation behind his eyes. "Have you packed your things, my messy mouse?" He enthused; the revelation set her spine to ice.

Sophie's stony expression masked the delirium thundering in her head: salvation for Lettie, Martha, Markl and herself, but how? The grating sound of her teeth helped distract her from the Wizard's sinuously musical voice.

"All the refinement of a sewer dweller as well, I see," Howl drawled contemptuously. "Hissing, snarling un-cleaned teeth, rabid panting. You're more a cat or canine, than a rat! Your father would roll over in his grave at the pitiful sight of you—" he cast his spurred hooks, baiting Sophie with his vindictive observations.

It worked. Sophie snapped at his bait.

She sprang up, clamping her teeth at the splendid she-man. "You leave my father out of this! You've no right to speak of him! You blacken my father's name by—"

"Sophie! Calcifer! I found a ribbon…," Markl's glee mutated into an 'Oooo' shape mouth. He brandished a tattered blue ribbon in his tubby hands. _Oh no. They are fighting again? _Markl told himself, seeing the stance between his Master and Sophie. _Silly grown-ups!_

"Markl, my faithful apprentice. Be a good lad and fetch a spell from my room for me will you?" Howl strode soundlessly to Markl and muttered something in his ear. Markl bobbed his head, and scrambled back up the stairs, ribbon in tow. "Do not return, until you find it. It's something Sophie needs to hear!"

"Yes, Master Howl!"

Sophie waited until she heard the door close upstairs. "What did you tell him?" she lashed savagely.

"What business is that of _yours,_ Ms. Moralizer? He's my apprentice, under my guard. You're abandoning him, aren't you? Maybe I should call you…Ms. Abandoner!" Howl tipped his head coquettishly, wagging his fingers at Sophie in a priggish school Mistress fashion.

His arrow tipped accusation hit its mark with deadly precision: Sophie's conscience and humanity.

"Once we arrive at Market Chipping, you may go wherever you wish. AFTER you tell my apprentice that you are leaving a contract, unpaid, and AFTER you tell him why you are abandoning him. After THAT, I shall collect Lettie as your replacement, forth with. You see, I am indeed man of my word, Sophie." The Wizard bowed with dignity and grace.

Sophie had always wondered what it would be to leave Marketing Chipping. Longing to face life head on, throw her existence to fate; to face foes and fears of life- she never divined foes and fears would hunt her down. How absurdly naïve she'd been to mistake life's dangers as an adventure.

She retreated a few steps from the glow of Calcifer, to shelter in the recess between the sink and stair way balustrade. She hugged herself in cold comfort. _Be careful what you wish for,_ _Sophie!_ She had what she wanted. The Wizard was true to his word, releasing her. She should be bursting with joy. Instead, a fear gripped her throat, keeping her paralyzed by the Wizard who'd injected his venom of serpentine manipulations into her life.

Howl simpered triumphantly at his prey, one boot on the stool, poised as a hunter over a fallen animal. What else did he expect from his remarkable self? "And you say I have no heart, Calcifer! Tsk tsk. How long until our destination, my friend?" he asked casually, relishing the view of Sophie grappling at her skirts at his every syllable. How lovely it was to revel in his starlight!

Calcifer grunted, disgusted at his friend's behavior, left with no recourse but to obey. "Too soon, it seems." He shot Sophie an anxious look. The shadows were swallowing her. "Sophie, _I told you_, we'll be fine," Calcifer hinted at their earlier, private confession.

Sophie wanted to battle the Wizard. She could fight the Wizard- if only the battlefield was level. She had inadvertently raced head on into his labyrinth of trickery. But how could she combat a foe of mercurial deception?

"You're abominably rude even when mute, Ms. Abandoner! _I'll_ do all the explaining to lovely Lettie then, once she is mine." He admonished with pomposity, a wicked leer marking his features. _"Mar-kl._ Would you come down here, please? Sophie has something to tell you!" Howl cooed teasingly in the direction of the stairs.

"No!" Sophie stared acid at the Wizard. "You wouldn't dare! Lettie will never go with you! Especially after she sees that snake skin of yours!"

"_You_ came, didn't you?" Howl chortled at the ridiculousness of Sophie's rebuke, flicking non-existent tears from the corner of his eye. "I cross my heart not to be as gentle on Lettie. I'll leisurely savour every inch of her alabaster—," he implied lecherously.

"NO!" Sophie blanched, so white she was luminous in the wavering darkness. "Not Lettie, please! Don't!" The horror crashed over her. Sophie recalled waking up in the Wizard's bed, naked save a man's shirt…The Wizard's shirt?

"Martha, then?" Howl offered humbly, in his own sickening generous wont.

Sophie shook her head, eyes ablaze with hysteria. "Don't you dare lay a finger on my sisters!"

The Wizard slapped his thigh, his peal of laughter echoed in the castle. "Oh, Sophie! That one is far too easy. I daresay, I've laid more than _a_ finger you on, my mouse." Howl's sinister scrutiny stalked over the curves of Sophie's shaking body. "Furthermore, you'll give me grey hairs before my time. All your to-ing and fro-ing; a wrecked sailboat with no direction! _You_ insult me with vulgarities. _Throw_ my generosity back in my face for a debt rendered. _Demand_ to leave. Then, _demand_ to stay!" Howl counted the 'sins' off on his fingers. "My unkempt harridan, has it slipped your mind this is _my_ castle? If you _wish_ to change my mind, you'll need to appease me. Show me the due respect I am owed!"

Sophie's eyes strayed imploringly to Calcifer, who shook his head in haplessness. "I want to stay! There! I've said it!" Defeat broke into her valiant heart.

"By jolly, are you saying you've erred, Sophie?" Howl articulated on her behalf, for the glory of his vanity.

"Yes!" Sophie cut off, angry at the trap she'd dived into.

"What does one do when we've wronged someone, Sophie?" The Wizards tone dropped abruptly to chilling depths.

"Howl, that's enough!" Calcifer interjected, deciphering the Wizard's train of thought.

"Pish-posh!" Howl snorted at his friend, before returning his intent on Sophie.

Sophie glowered with hatred at him, a final spurt of defiance in the face of downfall.

"You've trifled with my patience enough, my rat!" Howl spat, rather upset he was unable to draw Sophie out with ease and deplume. How dare she make him look second-rate! "I'll leave first for Cesari Bakery, Calcifer. Make sure you throw out the discarded refuse when the castle reaches Market Chipping."

"I'll stay! Leave Lettie and Martha alone! You've got what you want!" Sophie shrieked, clawing the kitchen counter. "I'll stay!"

"Good golly, Ms. Molly! You want to stay under my roof, under my protection and speak to me with the half-baked eloquence of a harlot? I think not, my dear. Please be so gracious as to depart from my castle. _Now._" Howl bowed mockingly, one hand across his abdomen, the other pointing to the door.

Sophie bolted her feet to the floor. She shook her head in steadfast refusal. "I'll stay with you because I have to. I promise," she forced the barbed words out. "Please don't take my sisters."

"Because you _have_ to? You _promise_ me? The Heavens fall!" The Wizard flailed his arms towards the rafters, and plopped onto the couch under the cubbyhole of the stairs. He reclined, crossed his legs and prettied his hair, looking into Calcifer. "I've no need for unwilling persons in my castle. You do me injustice. Everyone here stays because they wish to." Howl's voice dripped of pathos.

Again, Sophie shook her head tenaciously. Her feet were bolted so firmly to the ground she almost broke through wood.

The Wizard tilted his head, gloating merrily. "How does one assuage one's Master?" he asked in monosyllabic bites to what he perceived as a slower minded listener. "What position should one assume to apologise? To beg for forgiveness, my two legged rodent?" His lilt peaked sharply in warning. "Express due humility for the inconvenience you've caused me, Sophie Hatter! I will not be as generous with your miscarriage a second time."

Sophie clamped her eyes, clutching the mossy tiled counter surface. "I want to stay with you…Howl. I don't want to leave you. And I won't…"

"Until such time I see fit to be rid of you…" he added for her to repeat after him.

Sophie bit down, incapable of the words. _I'll NEVER sink to that level. I'm not a piece of garbage to be discarded!_ Her pride surged upwards and fought for her dignity.

"Markl!" Howl bellowed up to his apprentice who was at his wits end, looking for the scroll. "Sophie is leav—!"

"All right! Please, leave Markl be. I'll say it! I'll say it!" Sophie implored to him, her heart bleeding.

"I'll not put up with any_more_ flagrant disregard for my position, Sophie." The Wizards pale eyes flashed. His lips thinned to a cruel line.

Sophie turned to him, and sunk to her knees. She hung her head and watched her nails digging like talons into the timber flooring.

Sophie Hatter received exactly what she wished for: the Wizard had granted her wish, given her freedom.

In doing so, he had ensnared her.

-x-

_To Be Continued._

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Sooooo…is Howl turning out to be as 'nice' as you imagined? Or do you think there is any possibility there is a grain of humanity in him? All feedback welcome and thanks to everyone who put this story on their favs, alerts; and especially to the readers who took the time to review, to make me feel the fic is worth continuing. It's always good to know where I going right or wrong.

**AN: **When I got to writing this chapter I kept going and the draft came to almost six thousand words!! I divided the chapter in two because I've no intention of posting ridiculously long chapters. It's grueling to write then edit, and for me personally, tiring to plow through as a reader.


	7. Enslaved

**Summary:** This is a DIRECT follow on from the 'Ensnared' chapter. The sentence flows on from when Sophie is reduced to her knees by Howl's manipulations. Has Howl quite quenched his ego and ready to give Sophie peace? Read on and find out in the final half of the 'Ensnared' chapter. Can Sophie will her freedom from the Wizard?

**AN: **To my awesome beta Saotoshi, you rock - and you also happen to be brilliantly talented too!! :)

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**7: Enslaved**

Forced to her knees- irrevocably outfoxed and cornered into submission, Sophie supplicated to her Master, "I want to stay with you, Howl. I don't want to leave you. And I won't…until such time you see fit to be rid of me."

An aura of laconic disquiet clouded over the Wizard. Howl scowled through narrowed exquisite eyes, quite dissatisfied at the broken woman. The battle was his, yet the hollow victory chilled his already frost bitten marrow.

Sophie waited, her pulse stuttering in fear, for his reply. None came. Phobic the drawn out silence meant the Wizard would take one of her sisters, Sophie expressed with utmost humility, sincerity… and sadness, "I want to be here, in the castle, to fulfill the contract, Master Howl." Her vision of the weald floor wavered in a flood of tears. The droplets fell as Sophie irrevocably resigned her life and dignity to the Wizard. _"Please, let me stay with you."_

Involuntarily, the Wizard recoiled at the hurt steeped in her voice. Catching this unfamiliar and unwelcome weakness, Howl quickly recovered his usual demeanour. He ejected a sigh of one with the troubles of the world lifted from his shoulders. He protracted his brooding; hanging Sophie a tad longer on the noose, she'd slipped around her neck. "That's better. Well done, Sophie. Taming of wild a shrew is indeed _challenging,_ is it not, Calcifer?" Howl demurred testily to the fire demon.

"For sure! How could anyone tame _you,_ Howl? You shrew, you!" Calcifer disguised his anxiety with black humour, powerless to stop his friend's terrorism. This turn of events was beyond the demon's ageless comprehension. He surged and twisted his bonfire to the back of the blackened hearth, wishing to shut out the devastation the Wizard rained over Sophie. Nevertheless, his eyes simply rotated through his flames, to the depressive drama in his kitchen. _Damn 360-degree vision!_ He cussed, hissing and spitting fumes. "Don't get me involved in your denigrate affairs, Howl. I want no part of binding Sophie here against her will!" Calcifer raged tendrils of fire, crossing his arms. "And people have the nerve to call _ME_ a demon! Talk about a bad-rap!" He lashed his fork tongue at Howl, defiantly petulant.

"Ah, but Sophie is not bound here by any will but her own. Is that not correct, Sophie?" Howl leered indolently, drinking in the wreckage of the girl who had the audacity refuse him!

Bent over, lifeless as a worn down mountain, Sophie's disembodied voice replied, "Yes, Howl. I am here because I want to be."

"Sophie…" Calcifer's logs snapped, shocked and heartsick. "_Howl_, don't do this…."

"I want to stay, Calcifer. I stay here willingly," Sophie rasped through sobs, grief stricken.

"And there will be no more talk of leaving, fleeing or running away from your obligations to me, am I correct, Sophie?" Howl's voice threatened in a wondrous angelic, cautionary lilt.

Sophie nodded in compliance, unable to articulate the mandate she knew he demanded to hear. _Why is he doing this me? Why me? _

"What was that? I didn't quite catch your reply. _Woebegone!_ Am I the only one in this place with manners?" Howl balked, slapping his palms melodramatically over his brow; watching every inch of Sophie for the declaration he _yearned_ for, the declaration he _needed_ to hear. But why? The lump under Calcifer's grate trembled, flitting shards of cerulean flowerets in the wake of the Wizard's private ponderings.

"Yes, Howl. I will not speak of leaving the castle. I stay of my own free will."

"And there you have it! See how simple things are, Sophie? Now we're all one happy household, and the castle will be spick and span with a well-behaved cleaning lady!" Howl expounded with triumph, as if completing a laborious task, clapping his hands approvingly. "Markl!" Howl hollered up to the boy. "Why have you not found my scroll?"

Stomping sounds paused at the landing of the stairs. "I'm sorry, Master Howl. I've looked EVERYWHERE but I can't find the 'Yoormine' spell." Markl's shrill boomed down into the tiny living area.

Sophie flinched at the words. _What?_

A log dropped from Calcifer's mouth. What a vulpine, artful, scoundrel his friend was! The Wizard had calculated the minutest detail to scourge Sophie with every method at his employ. Moreover, he wasn't above maneuvering Markl to inadvertently blight Sophie, with the boy screaming, "You're mine!" to remind Sophie of her imprisonment. There was no such scroll to find!

"Markl, that's what comes of dallying; no matter. I no longer need that spell…"_Nor did I ever,_ Howl snickered, tossing his head back, guffawing at his flawless game of charade to stake down his pet rat. _Of course, she's mine! _"Come down here now. That's a good boy."

From the boy's position, the ceiling beams had obstructed his view of Sophie on her knees before his beloved Master.

As his scuffed boots hurried down the stairs, Sophie wearily picked herself up off the floor, every beat in her chest staccato with agony. Wiping the hopelessness from her face, she was beaming as Markl bounded to her. The shadows within her new prison were becoming good camouflage companions.

"Sophie, are you all right? Your face is grey again. Would you like me to make you some tea?" Markl scampered to Sophie, peering up at her happy face that somehow looked wrong. "Sophie?" Markl persisted anxiously, tugging on her limp arms. He would never understand why adults' words never matched their expressions sometimes: especially Sophie, his new friend.

She tugged a dry smile to the corner of her lips. Sophie cupped Markl's face in her palms, brushed the fringe from Markl's eyes. "T-That sounds lovely, Markl. A spot of tea would be perfect, if you wouldn't mind," she said, her voice a frail thread.

Markl scooted off, shoving an assortment of moldy things aside, searching for the kettle – its use long forgotten because of Calcifer's proclivities. "Calcifer, please please bend your head down. It's for Sophie! Okay?" Markl barked at the obstinate demon that refused to bow his head to anyone but the Wizard.

Calcifer pouted then stretched his thin lips into an obstinate line of rejection. However, one glimpse at Sophie persuaded him a thousand times over. "…A-All right…for _you_, Sophie. Markl, fill the kettle and bring it over here. Place it beside me. I'll put it on myself. I don't bow my head for anyone but _that_ underweight turncoat! _HOWL_. GETS. _NO_. TEA!"

The Wizard sauntered leisurely to his little mouse. He peered down imperiously at Sophie, who preferred to stare at his dazzling polished black knee high boots. What festered behind his eyes, Sophie cared not, and could not bear to study his sublime beastly beauty.

Howl magically drew Sophie to him in the midst of the tea making commotion, her toes flitting over the ground as she sailed towards him. Instinctively, Sophie jerked her head sideways, choosing cobwebbed infested stairs to the splendid she-man before her. "Don't let me catch you trying to manipulate the boy's emotions, as you've toyed with that demon, Sophie." Howl stooped low, cooing intimately into her ear. Sophie jolted back, flinching as if burnt by fire. The sorcery bound her to him, their bodies parted by a thin shaft of vermillion light. "Leap and reap the percussions," Howl threatened in a tone that forbade contradiction.

Begrudgingly, Sophie inclined her face towards him, so close his breath caressed the apple of her ear with wintry warmth. Her heart turned over at his closeness.

Markl turned around to witness the enchanting sight of his Master bent over his sweetheart. Markl blushed and tittered with embarrassment, kicking his feet around the floor at the sight. His stomach tickled on the inside watching Sophie and his Master. He wrung his hands behind his back, spying on them through his lashes.

"Kiss me," Howl's simplistic command clotted Sophie's blood. She stared and stared at him, quite petrified. The rafters seemed to pulse in outward ripples in the aftermath of his words, as she stared past the Wizard's head to the crumbling rafters.

Sophie shook her head haltingly unable to breath, disguising her refusal from Markl. "You _still_ dare to defy me? He does think we are _lovers_, Sophie," Howl's private abhorrent words slivered down her spine. "Why else would you be in my bed this morning, clad in my shirt and nothing more?"

_Oh, please NO! He d-did…N-NO! _Sophie choked, as if the Wizard held her heart in his palms and squeezed with malice. "I…c-can't…p-please, Howl. Please don't do this," Sophie begged exposing her vulnerability to his mercy. She swayed, feeling faint, helpless against the Wizards incessant assaults. _He did! _Sophie's mind screamed red with repugnant shame, the raw feelings aflame over every inch of her face.

For an instant, something foreign –regretful attrition – touched the Wizards face, vanishing from his features as he simpered, "You _do_ want to stay here, do you not?"

"Yes," Sophie's voice quavered, dizzied with sickness. _He did…._

"_Then show me_…," he murmured, ever too tenderly. Sophie dared to imagine him capable of feeling- such was the intensity of his timbre. Her pulse- to Sophie's disgust- thrashed wildly at his summons. His vacuous glassy eyes of luminous green, like two hypnotic whirlpools sucking her into his world.

Markl watched spellbound as his Master beamed lovingly down at Sophie. _"Is this what the fairy tales are like, Calcifer?"_ he hushed, leaning sideways into the hearth to Calcifer, who also watched mesmerized by the magnificent spectacle the Wizard had crafted.

"_It's a stinking tale all right Markl, but the fairies don't want anything to do with it. Even a wicked warty witch wouldn't touch it with a ten foot cattle prod!" _Calcifer bit out disapprovingly.

"Please let me stay, I'll do anything…," Sophie surrendered to the Wizard, weakened as the scorch of his body against hers began to melt her emotional resistance for him.

"And you _will_, my rat…," Howl reassured Sophie, tracing the tip of his index finger over shivering dry lips. "_Kiss me_…," his command now an impatient demand.

Sophie blanched; her mind a desert sapped of life-giving hope. Hesitantly, she pushed herself onto her toes and touched her hands lightly to the Wizards broad shoulders. Her lips grazed the hollow of his cheek; the split second contact electrified her. She pulled her face from his, repulsed by her reaction.

"Ah _ah_, Sophie. A valentine kiss must linger, the mere closeness and afterglow is what burns cheeks and sets bodies alight," Howl delivered his worldly advice with an amorous charm.

Sophie swayed, physically wasted and anemic. She was terribly exhausted. Why did this animal have this effect over her?

Howl, roped his arms around Sophie's waist to stop her fall (and further captivate his audience of two). He wouldn't have Sophie losing consciousness in front of the boy- he'd look barbarous and cruel then- and that simply wasn't part of his grand scheme.

Sophie's arms were pinned against the Wizards hard, lithe frame. Her eyes sunk at the horribly inappropriate intimate embrace he relished. Still, Sophie was grateful the Wizard had demanded no more of her. Until, in exaggerated slowness, he lowered his face to hers. Her nails dug into the velvet of his suit. Her dark amber eyes ablaze, staring from her ashen face. She bristled, aflutter with troubled anticipation for a kiss that didn't come.

Instead, Howl achingly pressed his cheeks to hers, his lashes feathering on her cheekbones. Sophie's eyes rolled into the back of her head, trying to starve off the blossoming sensations within her; the tease of his hair caressing her lips, the fever of his skin. _What's happening to me?_ Sophie gasped in harried spurts.

Abruptly, the Wizard drew back and tipped her quaking chin up to him. A confusion of emotions battled across his features: scorn, vulnerability, and affliction. The first won over. His lips traced the lines of Sophie's face, descending to the nape of her neck. He purred possessively, "You belong to me now, Sophie. You're mine." His affinity stripped Sophie of her final fiber of freedom.

The magic bond gripping Sophie snapped loose. The Wizard blazed out the door in a streak of scarlet white. "Calcifer, behave and watch over the castle until my return!"

Sophie staggered disorientated to the divan under the stair well. The hands of forbearance finally embraced her, allowing her to pass out.

Enslaved to the Wizard.

* * *

_**AN:**_ Ah, it seems everyone has fallen in love with Howl. LOL. Well, I did say in the summary Howl was out to make Sophie suffer.:) Anyhoo, many people are wondering HOW ON EARTH a relationship can develop between Howl and Sophie…hehe. Hearts are strange things and what we feel with our hearts, is usually disconnected from our heads. We're now only into 1.5 days of into the time line of the fic and a lot can happen. I'd love any predictions of what you all think Horrendous Howl will get up to next. I also wanted to get this published because I go on leave to Tokyo next week. I'm going to the Studio Ghibli Museum!! BOO YEAH!


	8. Sunbeams

**Summary: **Sophie wakes up the morning after she has handed her life over to the Wizard. At last, she enjoys a little reprieve with Markl and Calcifer.

**Rating: **T for this chapter.

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**8: Sunbeams**

Misted curlicues spiraled upwards and hissed from the glowing hearth. Hot steam whistled from a blackened kettle's spout, pulling Sophie from her curled ball of sleep. She fluttered her lids and bristled under the blanket, as shafts of sunlight broke through her darkened vision of sleep. She yawned under her ragged blanket and wriggled, trying to adjust and find a comfortable position on her bed.

_"La la la la laaaa! I'm not listening!"_ a piercing voice echoed off the rafters.

"Calcifer! You promised you would boil water for Sophie's tea!" Markl huffed and stomped his feet, hurt a promise made had been broken. He pouted his lips in disapproval, and locked his hands on his hips, ready to battle the haughty fire demon.

"Yeah, and? As I keep reminding you short stuff, _I_ boil the water! _I_ put the kettle on myself! Nyahhh!" Calcifer poked out his forked tongue, lashing it around facetiously. He spat a lemon-sized ball of soot (magically conjured) at Markl. "Now get! Go on! Shoo, before I boil you, too!" Calcifer blustered and cackled. He took the kettle off the edge of the stone hearth, placing it over his undulating body of flames.

"Good morning, Markl. Good morning, Calcifer," Sophie croaked, her throat parched from sleep, sitting up to wipe the sleep from her eyes. She reached the tips of her fingers above her in leisurely stretch. How domestic her captivity had become.

"Now look what you've done! You woke Sophie up, Calcifer!" Markl spat indignantly, dodging the fire demons soot ball. He bounded over, peeped between the curtains and hugged Sophie. "Good morning, Sophie!" he bubbled, burrowing his nose into the crook of her arm.

"Right, as if your feet stomping action didn't already accomplish that!" Calcifer defended, winking at Sophie. "I'd be over there in a heartbeat for huggles too, Sophie, but ya' know…the flame-engulf-singe-you-to-a-cinder thingy and all…."

"Your smile is enough to engulf any girl in flames, Cal!" Sophie grinned sheepishly, ruffling Markl's hair. More than a little self-conscious of the state of her undress and arid scent exuding from her clothes. "Markl, how about you and Calcifer make some Honey Suckle tea, then? I'll wash up and prepare breakfast?"

Markl clapped his hands, over the moon at the prospect of yet another hot breakfast! For him, a hot meal was as far-fetched as a fairy tale where a Princess lost the Prince's heart to a wicked witch! This would be six days in a row – more cooked meals than he'd had in two years at the castle!

"Why don't you set the table too, sweetie?" Sophie suggested, buying more time to make herself presentable.

Markl bolted away. He scrambled onto a stool by the kitchen counter. He reached for the newly stacked cracked dishes on the windowsill, grabbing a handful of bent crockery from the draw.

Sophie tidied her bed – the creaky divan under the cubby hole- with care. She folded the scratchy drab brown blanket and tucked it under a worn out embroidered cushion. She then closed the tattered maroon curtain, closing the door to her 'bedroom'. A string of tiny white lilac and white periwinkles intertwined with dried baby breath flowers —lovingly hand made by Markl—jingled from it as she did so. Her back ached, her muscles groaned from another fitful night, punctuated with sinister dreams.

Since the morning Sophie had fled from the Wizards bed and room, she had sealed the upstairs and the turn of events from her splintered mind. It would have been insufferable, otherwise.

For Sophie, the week creaked by. She toiled and scrubbed every inch of the living room and kitchen - floor to ceiling –working through her bitterness by scouring a few centimeters from the surfaces. Sophie had asked Markl to air out the castle everyday by opening all doors and windows, allowing the castle to regal in fresh air, as the magical home idled over the Wastes. The down stairs of the castle was verging on being fit for living.

It was at the age stained tiled kitchen counter Sophie washed her face. She scooped the mint crisp cool water from the washbasin – Markl prepared for her each morning -with her hands, splashing away the unspeakable agony that knocked at her forethoughts. Ignorance would be bliss, denial would be peace and subjugation would be contentment. The vapid reflection rippling back at her resembled the former Sophie Hatter, she once, never really knew. Each morning, she ritually washed a part of her former life into yesterday, baptizing herself for a new tomorrow. _Well, Sophie Hatter…we've made a promise…one that we must keep._" She bundled her hair high over her head, into an unflattering ponytail. In her mind, the sun began to rise above the rain of malignant clouds cast by the Wizard.

"Morning Mrs. S, Mr. S…baby S," Sophie charily touched the tip of her index finger to the only family of furry brown spiders left in the castle. The trio scuttled further into their family web, hung over the corner of the kitchen. They were weary of the stranger who'd allowed them to stay on, while she'd washed the rest of their kind to purgatory during her purging rampage. All other able legged rodents and non-human occupants in the castle hot footed out any opening they could find, or were flooded off in hot soapy water.

"Now…," Sophie injected enthusiasm into her voice, donning a lemon-checkered apron she'd uncovered scrunched under the counter. She swiveled on bare feet, as modesty was a moot point for now. "Calcifer, if you're good I'll give you the egg shells with a pinch of salt…_and_ I'll even burn some crackling exactly the way you like it!" Sophie enticed the fire demon, plucking the bacon from a wicker basket on the counter and dangled it over him. The way to Calcifer's heart was through his mouth and into his transparent wavering stomach.

"All right Sophie, you're taking advantage of my hungry nature, I tell you!" he chortled and reclined on his back, bearing his lilac streak red belly, squealing with mirth as Sophie fried eggs and bacon in the skillet. The fat dance and popped over the skillet, swamping the room with the lush piquant of crackling bacon and blistering eggs. Calcifer chuckled, rolling his eyes into the back of his head. "Oh the _paaaainnn_," he groused, playing dead, unfolding his tongue over the hearth edge in a crimson carpet of fire. "Ouch, oo, eee, Sophie…have mercy!"

"Well then, I'll have to give Markl your portion then, won't I?" Sophie goaded, raising one eyebrow at him. "I presume dead demons with a belly ache can't eat, correct?" Sophie played coy, wrapping the wooden spoon on the skillets edge, challenging the feisty Calcifer.

"OI! No fair!" Calcifer's spiked bows shot high in the hearth. He clamped his flames around the skillet, refusing to let Sophie steal his victuals from him.

Life in the castle had shifted from grim enslavement to morbid reality, from whence the Wizard swept out the door – after Sophie had renounced her colorless existence. What her kiss goodbye to her world and sisters entailed, she was yet to realize. She'd fainted, as if his toxic embrace had sapped her of all she knew. Sophie had slept way into noon the next day. Her mind was on edge awake and asleep, brittle and frail like eggshells. She existed in a paranoid state of psychosis. Jumping every time the door to opened, shrinking with every breeze that hushed by the windows, her pulse hammering when patrons came knocking at the castle door. Indeed, for the first few days Sophie truly was a skittish, frightened mouse, trying to blend into any shadowy recess, every time someone appeared at the door.

Markl watched over the castle, selling pre-made concoctions and simple spells to customers. Sophie observed with macabre fascination whenever the doorknob turned. Calcifer would announce a name of a shire, each corresponded to a specific colour of a disc hanging over the top of the door. Markl would trot to the cupboard and drag out a muted silver hooded cloak. She was doubly astounded whenever Markl drew the hood over his face, a ginger beard instantly sprouted from his jaw line, crow's feet spread from the corner of his eyes and his nose grew bulbous- giving him an aged, gnome-like face.

Calcifer kept the nomadic castle roving over the wastes- with no apparent destination that Sophie knew of. The only destination Sophie foresaw was to the Wizard's perdition. She did not dare to venture outside, unsure of the parameters of her confines, mindful to evade any contrivance the Wizard could conjure to torment her. However, asthe hours, days, passed, and the castle door closed and opened with no sign of the Wizard, Sophie's paranoia of their reunion regressed.

A washbasin was a poor substitute for bathing- and the living room afforded scant privacy even deep into the night. Sophie's nose had died a painful death, whiffing the odor oozing under the cracks of wooden bathroom door upstairs. Her nose remained permanently traumatized for its experience. Lord knew what the Wizard did in there; brew a cauldron of girls' hearts? Pickled his ego in flamboyant perfume bottles? The stench warned Sophie from the room. Nor did she wish to associate herself with anything in which _he_ extolled. Thank heavens the latrine was a separate room.

Today, Calcifer promised Sophie a special surprise. "Humans and their bathing! Cleanliness is over rated I tell you!" Calcifer had exhorted, shooting a haughty stare at Sophie, when she inquired about a bathroom that was not the Wizard's domain of vanity. "But seeing you've charred to perfection the most divine meals, how can I refuse you?" Calcifer had developed more than a few spongy spots, holes and mushy points for Sophie. His logs splintered and snapped with anticipation – eager to reveal his surprise for Sophie. "We're here, Sophie!" His voice overflowed with an ardor to please. "Welcome. To. Star Lake. Please remain seated, keeping your arms and legs in the castle, until we arrive at our destination." He couldn't resist but finish like the exceptional host he was.

"Star Lake?" Sophie's ears perked, prickling at the darling nature of the nomenclature: the delicious name an impetus for her climb from her malaise. An familiar essence penetrated every orifice of the castle, weaving between the stagnant redolence of living area, and tickled her nose. The sunlight slanting through the windows erupted into mercurial starlight, sparkling in a sea of ultramarine. "Where are we?" Sophie rushed to peer out the window.

"Open the door for Sophie, Markl," Calcifer ushered impatiently to the boy, who shot past Sophie and down to the front door.

"We plan for you to spend the whole day here, Sophie!" Markl's eyes swam with joy, seeing the rapture blossoming over Sophie's face.

Sophie moved from the window, catching her breath as the door swung open. A verdant plateau stretched as far as the eyes could see. Knolls rose and ebbed across the cerise horizon. Moss grass danced in rhythm to the invigorating, aromatic breeze. Blushes of blue-violet, fuchsia and snowy snapdragons bobbed merrily, singing a welcoming melody to their home. The delicate floral bouquet flirted gaily with Sophie. Beyond the green tableau, a silk blanket of crystalline water surged to the hemline of the sky, twinkled a rainbow of refracted beauty. Pastel lilies unfurled their petals and skated over the surface. Star Lake was a magical body of water that resembled an oasis aloft between clouds and soaring birds. Her spirit soared with the birds and her lungs ballooned with the country air, filling her with a sea of hope.

For now, duty called first, and pedantic Sophie neatly folded her bliss to one side. In no time, she and Markl uncovered every single stitch of material from the castle – save the Wizard's domain. Sophie scoured every scrap on the washboard (three times over, her hands raw pink with exertion), rinsing the pile of clothes, curtains, sheets and all sorts until they were a respectable ecru. The garments later flapped in their pristine splendour from a temporary clothesline strung over the castle.

"Splendid! THAT was a job well done, Markl," Sophie spun around, her arms swinging out wide. She stopped, handed Markl the wash basket, precariously balanced with a tower of folded garments.

He giggled, his nose sniffing, twitching suspiciously at the laundry. The dewy freshness felt foreign to him. "Hehe. I wonder what Master Howl will think of all this?" Markl beamed up to her, bumping against her hips.

Sophie's expression darkened. She thrashed away every residue of the Wizard from her mind. She pursed her lips into a tight smile. "Markl, sweetie, would you mind putting away the washing for me? I'd really love to…," Her eyes strayed longingly back to inviting waters leaving her request left unfinished. The lad nodded obliging, fully appreciating Sophie's unspoken desire.

"Of course, Sophie, take your time," and he bounded off, waving before closing the door behind him.

Sophie examined the door for long minutes, considering what she was about to do. She ambled to the lake's edge, wading ankle deep in the lapping shore, the delightful chill wiggling right from her feet to her scalp. She found a tiny alcove that arched in a crescent shape hidden behind a knoll just beyond the castle. It afforded some privacy. After several bouts of hesitation, peering over her shoulders, Sophie slipped off her dress, petticoats and pantaloon. The length and curves of her body dusted with a red blush, caressed by the winds. Modesty reared and Sophie crossed her arms over her breast and between her thighs, mortified she was bearing herself in broad day light. "But what recourse is there, Sophie? Cleanliness before all else!" Her sense of decorum demanded. Carefully, she perched on a rock ledge that jutted over a pool of water. She washed her clothes, before laying them on nearby rocks scorched by noon to bake dry.

Gaining some security she was safe to bathe, Sophie swished her toes in a circular in the water, sucking a breath through her teeth at the snap biting over her skin. She waded to waist deep depth, squinting through the aqua clear liquid. She saw her feet undulated with the undercurrents, her toes sinking into the powder white sand. She sank down until the water was neck deep, running her hands over arms, chest, and further down using the balled bar of soap Markl had left for her. She winced, and clamped her eyes closed to the purple yellow fleshy shackles around her wrist, the burgundy teeth marks on her neck. A stream of salty tears trailed down her cheeks.

It was the same body, same skin. The fact that her body belonged to him swelled her chest with a white-hot despair. Again, she tore up the hurtful memory of her first night in the castle. Her ecstasy evaporated like water in blistering desert, her bliss snatched away by the absent Wizard. She fought through the waters, darting the lilies, hurriedly drying herself and dressing in her dried clothes.

She upturned her whiskey shimmering eyes to the sky. Judging by the position of the sun, she guessed it was about noon. She reclined in the blanket of piquant grass away from the water, sliding her lids shut. She forgot herself, her debt and her mother abandoning her. _I never had much of a life to lose, did I? _The winds stirred the blades of grass and tickled her exposed skin. The sun basked her in heated nirvana. She snuggled further into the mattress of grass, planting her palms behind her neck. She began to pick out the clouds in the sky, dreaming what it would be to fly onto one of the passing clouds, sink into the airy downy, to drift off, unshackled. However, too burdensome were her emotions and obligations, she would have simply sent the clouds crashing to the ground. How long would she have to remain with the Wizard? What did her bond to him entail? As much as Sophie resisted, images of the courtly, august man from May Day, strayed uncontrolled through the maze of her dreams. She bolted upright, hugging her knees to her chest, disturbed by her train of thoughts. Why, despite his brutality, did her mind cling to those moments, yet pass over the junctures where he manipulated her life into his corrupt machinations?

What would happen when he returned to the castle? The questions riddled her brain like icy hailstones. "Oh, Sophie Hatter! What are you doing to yourself?" She was terrified… but of whom? She tugged at her splayed mass of lustrous, henna tinged hair that shone in gentle curves, as it often did when unleashed from her ponytail.

"Sophie! Master Howl's home!" Markl's voice carried from the castle vicinity.

Her time was up. Sophie's heart fossilized, tumbling through her ribs and on to grass with a thud. "Oh, Father…," Sophie's lips trembled with foreboding. She pressed her palms together, pressing her hands to her forehead. "…Father, I know you'll always watch over me. Please, please give me strength to endure…," she beseeched to her dearly missed and beloved, departed father. The glorious brilliant afternoon transformed into a cloak of black storm throbbing with angry clouds, the air thickening with oppression.

There was no choice, but to return. She was a stubborn student who had learnt her lesson by heart, from an equally harsh and unyielding teacher, who did not seem to possess one. Her limbs hung as marble, threatening to fall from her body, as she moved herself through the grass. Her footfalls stalled at the sight of the castle. Her confidence rallied to her aid, pushing her onward to battle. Her hands chorded white, strangling the doorknob. She swung the door open in one angry swoop. She armoured every part of her mind, body and spirit with animosity. Her grim expression chiseled in deep, etched lines over her face.

* * *

**AN: **Hi all. I'm so sorry it's taken a while to update but life has been nuts, and I'm very tired. This chapter is long'ish and the next one is 3/4 quarter done. Saotoshi my aweome beta THANK YOU for getting the chapter back to me sooo quickly. :) Thank you to everyone to reviewed for the story since I last updated. I'm sure I replied to everyone but if FF ate any of my PMs or you did not receive a review reply please let me know. As always, love any feed back good or not so good. In case you are not familiar with the movie, 'Star Lake' features in the movie. Calcifer takes Sophie there, and there she does laundry with Markl, and she starts to settle into the castle life.

Have a good one everyone.


	9. Lovely

**Summary: **After a week free of the Wizard, Sophie begins to relax and sees a ray of hope shine over her captivity in the castle. The castle is on the verge of being fit for the living, the washing done…and the Wizard has returned home.

**Rating: T **for the time being.

**-xx-xx-xx-**

**9: Lovely**

His back was to her. To Sophie, he was luminescent in the corner of the living area to the right of the entry, where his apprentice sat at the dining table. He wore the same scarlet suit, impeccably tailored to every inch of his hewed lithe form, from the broad width of his shoulders tapering to his lean hips. He leant over Markl, one hand flat on the kitchen table, the other placed affectionately on the boy's head. Scrolls that were not on the table when Sophie left lay uncurled before Markl, who positively radiated gaiety at his Master's homecoming.

"Thank you, Master Howl," Markl squeaked, his voice sparkling high on ecstasy and giddy with worship at what Sophie presumed were gifts from the Wizard to his apprentice.

Sophie stood paralyzed. Her rigid silhouette clung to the doorframe, shafts of amber rays speared through the door. Her bare feet crushed to the ground. The Wizard smiled down to his apprentice, a genuine tenderness softening his features. Where was the abhorrent three-headed Wizard she prepared herself for hiding?

"There you are, Sophie!" Markl waved wildly, peeking through and under his Masters arm. "I'll take the new spells to my room. I want to read them right away, Master Howl! I missed you very much while you were gone! Hasn't Sophie made the castle look very nice?" Markl fired a litany of happy ruminations between Sophie and his Master, before ascending the stairs to his room. He was tickled-pink with the new gifts, and had no mind to dally. He was far too excited to dabble with the incantations to chitchat.

-x-

Howl didn't acknowledge Sophie. He was poised with roguish swank where Markl had left him bent over the table. The shafts of sunbeams breaking through the windows rained a sparkling tawny mist over him.

Sophie in turn, braced herself, seething brimstone beneath her wintry façade: lying in wait for the chronic cutting remark, an acerbic whip of his keen-edged forked tongue that could precision slice granite. He was lovely and terrible, a towering jewel of bane and beauty.

"I see you've done well, Sophie. I am most pleased…," his soothing inflection coiled around Sophie, the tenor capable of bursting hearts with delirium, except for Sophie, whose skin crawled with a thousand furry spiders at his discourse.

He pivoted to her in one graceful motion, a mastered rhythmic waltz. Her eyes grew round, hungry for more. He cocked his head to the side, demure, a smile quirked at the corners of his mouth.

"Come to me," he invited sweetly, stretching out his arms to her, every extension of him longing.

Their eyes touched. Sophie's stomach quavered. Her eyes slammed to her toes that curled under in discomfiture, helpless to withstand his ambrosial onslaught.

He tugged on his white shirt sleeves, reclining leisurely on the edge of the table, reeking a roguish confidence that he had undisputed claim to.

A tremor reverberated under Sophie's feet, or was it the room? She clung to the doorframe, battling to retain her fracturing resolve. The barrage of aspersions she'd armed herself with, tumbled from her head to mess at her feet. The seconds of intensity overpowered her, straining to an aching eternity.

"Come to me," Howl said with such solicitous veracity- it was sinister. He extended his index finger and curled it back towards himself, luring her to him. "I would very much appreciate, and insist, on a kiss upon my return home, Sophie."

Sophie eyes flared with revulsion. She glowered at him in auspice. Those thick lashes framed the length of his eyes with fine line, the alluring crook of his lips frightened and fascinated Sophie. _Say no, Sophie. Refuse him. _Sophie Hatter the plain vanilla of three sisters had not a prayer. "W-will you stay away from my sisters?" Her faculties remained sufficiently smart, to realize the precariousness of her situation.

"If you remain true to your words, your _vows_ to me, then my words are bound by yours," Howl hedged a firm assurance. He held out his upturned hands. "Come to me." He craned his head forward slightly, dipping his head to peep under and into her owlish, frenzied eyes. Relishing to toy with his spry pet for self-glorification, the Wizard committed an unspeakably, despicable crime against Sophie. The darkling wells of his eyes filled with compassion, the tidings of his eyes disarming and kindly. He smiled, sincerely, lovingly, stripping Sophie naked of dissension.

Sophie surrendered, her arms falling to her sides, all forsaken, Calcifer, Markl, and herself. She padded up the stairs, and hesitated where his fingertips waited, incapable of taking the final step into his web.

"_Sophie_…come to me," she heard him say and swayed at his lascivious edict.

The room spun, his bittersweet scent swamped over her, and Sophie stepped into his open arms. The Wizard tenderly gathered her to him, sliding the flat of his hands up her spine, settling between her shoulder blades. His apparent benevolence tore deep into her with its viciousness. She craned her face up to his, fists hard to his chest, the mouse ensnared once more. "Having to repeat myself is indeed, tiresome," he drew his face down to hers, simpering in his slick libertine fashion. "Such misspent wasted throes - leaves little time for more precious…_matters_." With a serpent grace, his mouth hovered to the left, teasing to the right of hers. "Hence forth, I do hope you commit to this home coming custom, Sophie." He took her parted lips.

A succession of thunderclaps struck with a loud CRACK at Sophie's synapses. Sophie averted his lips, sucking in a harried breath. She gasped at the hot, moistness of his lips wetting the corner of her mouth. Determined to appease his mandate, Sophie planted a placating, chaste kiss to his creamy chin. The sensation popped her ears. Her mind begged to flee; her body yearned, pleaded to stay. She fixed her quavering vision to the hem of his hair that cupped over his white collar.

"Mountain dew becomes you. You are the whisper of a fragrant, inviting breeze…" His breath scorched behind the lobe of her ear, while one hand trailed into the softness of her waist length hair.

The potent kiss seeped vigor from Sophie's limbs. She dug her fingers into his upper arms, tipping her face into his shoulder, fervently skirmishing to free herself – from herself.

Somehow, Howl's other hand had walked up to the opening of the high collar of Sophie's dress. His devilishly skilled fingers unhooked the fastener, lusting for her flesh. "The sunbeams have dusted your cheeks. The scent of water lilies swathe your nubile skin." His fingers parted her collar. "Your hair clings to the sweetness of the Star Lake…." He murmured, brushing the tips of his mouth to her jaw line, skimming provocatively over her pulse point, "…terribly…_lovely_," before he nimbly nudged the tip of his nose into the opening of Sophie's collar. The ardor of his lips seared her skin. "You take my breath away, as I steal yours."

His voice resonated deeply, lightning striking her body repeatedly with his every syllable.

His mouth traced a fiery path around to the hairline behind Sophie's neck. She moaned involuntarily. Howl's fingers wasted no time pushing her collar aside to expose her bare shoulder. Sophie balked, shoving him back. She slapped a hand to her throat where he had been, her stomach thrashed with a nauseam of chagrin and contrition. One day the Wizard reduced her to her knees. Today, he was manipulating, beguiling her sensibilities. He would stop at no end to manacle her sanity to his wicked forays!

Sophie retreated further from the Wizard, urgently fastening her collar with trembling hands. In spite of her splintered nerves, she methodically counted her steps _One, two, three _to fall back to _terra firma,_ and to distance herself from a vermin blessed with Angel wings. This wasn't the Wizard…what had happened to him in the past week? What noxious tapestry was he needling into her now?

"I-I…," Sophie took a strangle hold of her faculties, heaving raggedly. _The disgrace of it all! _She wailed to herself. His breath and caress singed deeper into her skin like acid. She brushed down her skirts, unsure of what had just occurred. She clasped her hands in a matronly manner to her stomach, reclaiming a morsel of composure and dignity.

The Wizard cast his eyes to the floor his fringe veiled his vulpine, feline crafted eyes. The only visible feature was the mocking sneer painted over his mouth. Coolly, he flipped his golden locks back over his head, the strands tumbling into pristine place to frame his face. He raised his hand to his mouth and ran the ball of his thumb over his bottom lip, savoring the residual bouquet, the feminine tang of her. A jade shine emanated from under his half-cast lids. He's eyes slid up to meet hers, the nefarious smirk flattering his face. "Yes, Sophie? Please, do continue."

Sophie watched captivated, unable to tear her eyes from his virile presence.

"Or dare I say it for you. My homecoming has rendered you speechless?"

"I- I…." Sophie straightened her back, jutting her chin as high as possible for a bitten prey. " I-I wondered if you would care for a spot of lunch!" Sophie broke off with an uncertain and accomplished nod to herself.

His peal of waspish laughter rocked up Sophie's spine. He crossed one booted ankle over the other, folding his arms over his chest, smiling a churlish, masterpiece of a grin.

The derision drenched in his mirth tightened Sophie's skin. How she longed to take a hatchet to that swaggering, ego-infested pointy-head of his! The Wizard seeing her in an indecent and a bedraggled state: hair a lush tousle, her feet bare and her collar unfastened in public! Disgraceful! It was unbecoming etiquette. It opposed all that she and her sisters had learnt, at the fancy finishing school her father had sent them to. However, neither was her captivity! She hurried to the hearth, not bothering for his retort that was certain to be a sardonic lance! Calcifer! Her Knight of Flaming Fire had abandoned her. Why and when _was_ the flippant demon meek and mild? Sophie spun to the pyre in the hearth. It was a motionless flattened mass of shimmering, transparent claret. The fire demon's eyes were transfixed on Sophie, enormous orbs suspended in an emotional daze.

Sophie bent over the hearth, hands pressed on her knees. "Calcifer?" Sophie asked, curious and a touch anxious.

Calcifer's flames wavered, his jagged tips wilted downwards to the grate piled with ash. His expression etched in gleaming blue green lines of fright. Sophie snapped her fingers over the depleted bonfire: the customary explosion of colors superseded by a subdued profusion flickering from tangerine, citrine to tempered coral. A florescent cerise sac trembled in the midst of her friend. Calcifer furled his burning petals over and around the non-descript object fire that sat in the centre as a stigma of the scorching bloom.

A log splintered, breaking open, tossing a plume of toasted maple aroma over Sophie.

Unaffected by the heat, she inclined further towards Calcifer. "Calcifer, what's wrong?" Sophie persisted in a lilt, low and heavy with trouble.

"_Don't, Sophie."_

It was that ghostly, ethereal voice again. A disorientated melody that was not wholly Calcifer's ricocheted off the stonewalls of the fireplace. That exact one Sophie had heard her first night in the castle. _"You're simply someone I am yet to know,"_ it had said.

She craned further into the hearth, anxiety furrowing her brows. "Let me help you, Calcifer. Please. I don't understand. Talk to me."

"You're too late, Sophie. I found you, too late," the abject, sad voice dissipated into the crackle of fire, the blue stigma within Calcifer dimmed. Wordlessly, the fire demon folded in on himself; one pyre petal of flame over the other, shutting Sophie out.

Sophie took the cast iron poker hanging from the side of the hearth, and gently prodded the white-hot logs away from under Calcifer.

"Cal, let me help you. What's wrong?" Her intuition niggled something was amiss. "What do you mean by too late, Calcifer? I'm right here," Sophie assured nervously.

"Sophie, come to me," the voice beckoned, the softness hardening.

Sophie Hatter owned meagre material possessions, which she overcompensated for with a King's ransom of generosity, piled sky high with a treasure trove of inquisitiveness. Observing the raucous fire demon exhausted with vulnerability, tugged at her heartstrings.

"Sophie," the voice came again, harsh and sunken. Was it coming from the hearth or behind her? Sophie strained her eyes, darting between the logs in search of the elusive blue core inside of Calcifer: a core that seemed to double as his burden.

"Sophie." The shards of kindness fell from the voice.

Sophie squinted harder, concentrating on the pulsating blue mass. She tapped on the ash encrusted embers, sending them crumbling to expose the naked flames on the blackened grate.

"Calcifer, what's wrong?" As Sophie leaned closer and over the feeble fire, she discerned the closed slit of the fire demons eyes, transparent through his closed petals. He was a burning paradox. A destructive blaze yet a fire deprived of rage and heat.

A hand snapped around Sophie's wrist. The poker dropped from her hands clanking off Calcifer, and rolled off the hearth to the floor. A shower of soot tumbled and festooned off wooden floor, whooshing up into a mushroom cloud.

The Wizard hauled Sophie with a firm jerk from the fireplace. She stumbled sideways for balance. The breath knocked out of her from the violent motion.

"Leave Calcifer be, Sophie," the Wizard commanded.

"Can't you see something is wrong? Please, I just want to help him," she pleaded, her eyes darting back over her shoulders to the molten puddle of fire. "What's wrong with Calcifer?"

The Wizard surveyed Sophie with disdain, his cool regard shrouded by the overbearing shadows of the castle. "It is none of your concern. Let him slumber," he clipped, detached words offering not a hint of what ailed his friend.

Sophie seethed, gritting her teeth in contempt at the Wizards callous demeanor.

What was wrong with Calcifer? Why wouldn't the Wizard allow her to help his friend?

"Let go of me!" She struggled to free herself, clawing at his locked hand.

"Oh, I _do_ beg your pardon, Ms. Nosey Parker! Why mere moments ago you melted to my touch. Now you have the insolence to play at a frigid rock?" the Wizard mocked, bearing his brilliant teeth in a dangerous, challenging smile.

"Release me! Let go! Let me help Calcifer! Can't you see past that crooked nose of yours for a human second, you degenerate Wizard!" Sophie cried, hammering his hand. The harder she fought, the tighter his lock over her wrist."The world revolves around the Sun! Not the likes of you!" She shouted digging her heels into the floor, pulling back on her entire body.

The Wizards blithe smile widened on his baneful face, he arched one fine brow high in derision and effortlessly raised Sophie's wrist up to his eyes.

"Let go! Stop!" Sophie bit in agony.

He roared with amusement, a cruel manic snort of satisfaction. "Condescension does not become you, yet you insolently persevere with your attempts to belittle me with your disrespectful banter." He pulled Sophie's wrist, forcing Sophie to balance on the tips of her toes. "Thankfully for you, condescension becomes me, Sophie. And I _will_ educate you on the deeper meaning of 'respect', my pet."

"_H-Howl ple-,"_ Sophie strained to speak, feeling the agony surge from her wrist to her elbow. "You're hurting me…." Her fingers fanned out to exorcise the torture.

The Wizards fingers ate deeper into her swollen crimson flesh, cutting off the circulation to her hand. His eyes keen with sadistic exhilaration, drinking the pain contorting Sophie's face as if it was a fine aged wine.

"H-Howl…" Sophie rasped through fitful breathes. She splayed her fingers in a final bid for freedom before she crumpled before him, her arm stricken, numb with shock**.**

"You disappoint me, my rat. I should have known better. Obedience does not come naturally to an ill bred feral creature," he whispered to the side of her drooping head, taunting her with his sickening intimacy. "As your rightful Master, I have no recourse but to tutor you by the most appropriate methods, on the deeper meaning of 'obedience', Sophie Hatter."

Sophie wearily turned her face up to his, her eyes glazed over with horror and excruciating hurt. What did he want from her?

His face was a perverse leer of triumph.

"Howl, please, you're hurting me…." _Don't give in to him!_ Sophie's echoed to herself. She bunched her fingers up in a fistful of retaliation and thrust the imprisoned ball into his face.

Howl's sinful smirk snapped to a steel line. The Wizard airily tilted his face dodging her tiny fist. Sophie stumbled forward past the Wizard. She cried out as a curdling scream of pain ignited in her shoulder. The Wizard adroitly sidestepped, twisting Sophie back in front of him, unaffected by her insolence, her wrist effortlessly shackled in his whitened hand.

His free hand roughly cupped her left cheek forcing her face to him, his face shot down to her blanched one. "I have yet to entertain the notion of _hurting _you, my rat," he demurred, declaring his statement as an undying oath. "I will wring you dry and bleed you blue of every droplet of impudence. Your tenacity is your quick sand, Sophie." With inhuman speed, he took her shaking lips with his. A tender, aching embrace that made Sophie's bone buzz, briefly diffusing the hell in her arm. His lips lingered on hers, his index finger rimmed over her mouth before he withdrew.

He was true to his ruthless words, his subversive kiss bleeding Sophie of her residual drop of effrontery. She stared up at him, hapless and torn. The sea of red lustre from the fire cast a half mask of bloody fire on the right of the Wizards face. The opposite side pure ivory imprisoned, behind a bar of shadows. His sublime face was a living painting, the light and dark at constant battle.

The Wizard relinquished his hold of Sophie's wrist, releasing it finger by finger.

Sophie left her arm raised above her, limp and trembling by the invisible shackles in her mind. Would the Wizard allow her to relinquish her torture without his permission?

"One hand bids the pain that complements punishment, the other bestows pleasure, Sophie," he whispered into her fringe. "The power of my hands," he paused. "Which hand holds your world, is in your hands."

Sophie hung her head, shutting out his words that rung crystal clear, as was his corrupt pearls of cunning and black-hearted wisdom.

The echoes of Star Lake hushed its peaceful lullaby in the midst of Sophie's turmoil.

The Wizard was silent, his hands sliding to rest over her thin upper arms.

"W-What do you want from me?" Sophie asked drained of hope, a tone in suffering and bewilderment. Sophie lifted her eyes to his, capitulating, realizing the victory could only be his. "What do you want from me, Howl?"

His expression was a glacial save his tormented eyes that bore at her. His eyes were the exact eyes that shone from Calcifer. A twitch ticked at the side of his temples. His eyes narrowed, brimming with an unsettled and tragic well of what he saw before him. The Wizard cursed under his breath, appalled at the holes Sophie had dug into her torn skirts. The chords of his neck throbbed at the stains of violence on her wrists. He had revered in her punishment yet why did he also feel…shame?

The face that looked down on Sophie was not that of the Wizard who'd leisurely procured her life. It was the face of a lost youth, a vulnerable child. His hurtful expression sent pangs of empathy through her. It rooted a seed of compassion that would continue to sprout in Sophie.

"Sophie…" That voice had returned!

Sophie whipped her eyes to the hearth drawn by the warm comforting tenor.

"Sophie."

She swung back to the Wizard. Her mind must have been delusional! The disembodied voice from the hearth and the Wizard's were the one? The same?

"Howl?" Her heart resumed a cautionary beat, her blood raced into her veins and thrashed loudly into her head once more.

The Wizard did not reply. He slid his fingers down her arms and clasped her wrists in his hands.

Instinctively, Sophie flinched backwards.

"_Sophie_," the Wizard's barbed tone stopped her.

She let her wrists slacken in his palms. _There is nothing left for him to do now, save to brand his anagram on me_, Sophie cussed bitterly. She dropped her gaze to the floor, closing her eyes. _Is there a limit to how much hurt one feels?_

The healing heat of his touch eased the spasms of misery assailing her arm. The Wizard enfolded his hands over her wrists. Sophie felt his fingers gently feather over the underside to the pulse points. Her pulse relaxed and sighed with contentment. The throes of torture rising through her sinew flesh, evaporating from every pore of her skin. She felt her hands fall free.

Sophie opened her eyes, blinking through the mélange of gloom and midday sun of the living room.

She caught sight of the Wizard's heels disappearing at the top of the stairs. _What did he do? _She rushed her wrists up to her eyes, wiggling her fingers checking whether they were indeed, still intact. Sophie turned and twisted her hands and wrists in search for expected scars. Nothing.

Her appendages were anaemic and quaking at the Wizard's wake. She flipped her palms to her face, scrutinizing them for any traces of trickery he might have left. But here were no scares.

She was flawless: un-bruised by his depravity. The crushing reminder of her captivity on her limbs stained by his band of brutality, were gone.

* * *

**AN: **Ok! Here is the latest chapter updated fast'ish as promised- I finished my final edits at 4am Sunday. *yawns* It's now 1:30am Wednesday. I'm tired and my head hurts from work. Also, the MAIN reason this chapter is up so fast is thanks to my awesome beta Saotoshi who got this back to me in two days! BOO YEAH! Thanks Sao u ROCK! Thank you to everyone who reviewed for my last chapter. It helps keep me going if people seem interested in reading more or tell me where I'm going wrong, right or round about. :) Love any comments etc Fingers crossed I'm uploading the betaed version and not one of the gazillion versions I was working on. I apologise for being a tired human being. G'nite all.


	10. Beginnings

**Summary: **The Wizards return to the castle has left Sophie bewildered, and in this chapter, Sophie begins try to understand and find her way through the Wizards rhyme and logic.

WARNING! Lol this chapter has not been beta'ed. My awesome beta Sao has it in her inbox somewhere, ready for when she is ready to beta for me. However, I've taken a while to update as I've been sick, though I'm not sure why I'm apologizing for being sick. I am human and will not be able to pick up silly mistakes after looking at the chapter 700 times. :D My best buddy is MS grammar check and it's given me the all clear. Feel free to point out any silly boos boos to help me with any corrections.

**-xx-xx-xx-**

**10: Beginnings**

The selfless act of rescuing a fallen frightened star, the cataclysmic event when a lonely youth and a dying diamond of the heavens, was the exact instant that began shedding humanity from the youth. More than a score in years had passed. The youth flourished with his sublime physique, along with his artful way with women, and his uncanny gift for alchemy. All was foreseen, glorious, as he desired. His life was brilliant and decorated. Then one day, amongst the sea of common faces and fanciful crowds clamoring for attention shone a simple little thing. Outstanding in her simplicity as she had desperately attempted to vanish into the sea of vibrant colors, which he could see was quite impossible- ridiculous almost. She was a stark contrast to all that revered him, a stark contrast to all whom wanted him. He saw her face and he didn't know what to do. How could an inexperienced youth in a spoilt man's body know what course to take, when one's life journey awakes?

xXx

"Sophie, Sophie? Are you all right?"

Something tugged on her sleeve.

"_Sophie?"_

It was Markl. How long had she been on the stool entranced by the sleeping fire? Through the windows, the tawny skies had transcended to cool hue of indigo. Dusk was upon the castle.

"Sophie? Are you all right? I've been calling you for a very, very long time. I was getting worried!" Markl slipped between Sophie and the hearth, peering up into her eyes, angling his head side to side.

"Oh Markl, sweetie, I'm sorry. I must have been daydreaming," Sophie apologized and patted his head.

A rumbling noise erupted from the boy's stomach. He colored a healthy apple red and rubbed his hands over his belly in circular motions, his puppy dog eyes silently begging for the obvious.

"I see. Why don't I start supper then?" Sophie stood up and moved to the counter, possessed by the mystery the Wizard and Calcifer had thrown her into. Some greens on the verge of withering, smoked pheasant sausages and eggs were in the wicker basket, that a local fisherman had left in exchange for a sea faring potion that morning. "Is Calcifer often like this?" She asked Markl, masking her unrest by fidgeting with the ingredients. Was Calcifer simply in need of sleep as the Wizard had said?

"You know, Sophie," Markl said swaggering up behind her, "Calcifer is a mighty powerful demon," he expounded proudly arching his arms wide to encompass exactly how mighty. "I don't know how mighty because he _never_ leaves the hearth. He can move the castle so I think he must be REALLY good! I can barely move a spoon with my magic!" Markl chuckled unabashedly. He walked over to the fireplace and wiggled his nose, squinting at the quieted demon. "He looks like a sleeping flower don't you think, Sophie?" Markl scrutinized his friend a tad longer.

"Aren't you the least bit worried?" Sophie continued, stroking the eggs, envying Markl's blissful perspective of the world.

"Uh-_ah_," he punctuated each syllable with absolute certainty. "If anything was wrong Master Howl would know. Master Howl knows how to take care of everything, Sophie. He is the smartest, kindest, and best'est Wizard in all of anywhere!" Markl counted off the virtues on his stubby fingers for his superfluous Master. One hundred fingers would have not have been sufficient for his Masters virtues.

Sophie sucked in her breath, choosing to shield the boy from her inhumane experiences and view point of his master. How had the boy come to live in this be-spelled? Why did the boy love and devote himself to the Wizard to such an extent? Had the Wizard charmed and manipulated Markl with subterfuge? Moreover, why did Calcifer remain in the castle? Was he bound to it under some contract as she was?

Sophie slid her gaze up the stairs where the Wizard had ascended. He had let her be, leaving her perplexed, tormenting after him. Why had he inflicted ungodly suffering only to take it away? What was the truth behind his actions? The crushing kiss. The body rush. His cruelty. His kindness. Those eyes. That voice.

"Markl, why don't we take an outing into town for dinner this evening? I know of a lovely bakery in Market Chipping," Sophie heard herself saying. The possibilities were endless if she could escape- leave for one night, free her mind and body from the stifling confines of the oppressive castle. To find Lettie and tell her…tell her what? How had her mother explained away Sophie's disappearance to everyone?

"Really? Oh yes PLEASE!" Markl began hopping around floor like springrabbit. "I never get to eat out! No wait! Well, there was the time Master took me out for my birthday. Can we go somewhere with mash and bangers!" the lad was literally drooling at the gastronomic pleasures of garlic butter mash potatoes and grilled sausages. "And pomegranate tipple!"

"Of course, Markl." Sophie wasn't sure Cesari Bakery served Markl's dream victuals nor where to find the 'pomegranate tipple' which sounded suspiciously lush and inebriating. No matter, this was an unforeseen chance to steal out of the castle, and Sophie couldn't let it slip through her unfortunate fingers.

Again, Sophie trailed her eyes up the shadowy stairs, her paranoia now evolved into a force of habit. Would the Wizard emerge sooner_ or_ later if she left? Would he emerge from his room at all? She was justified to leave Calcifer be, feed Markl and collect essentials to survive her new, entrapped life. The curse of Eve was near and there was no recourse. Surely the Wizard, "_Howl…,"_ Sophie unconsciously whispered his name. He could and would be reasonable she surmised. Sophie would abide by her words, and stay by the Wizard's side, to protect her sisters.

"You only have to miss him for one more night, Sophie. The longer Master Howl is away from the castle, the longer he stays in his room. He won't come down tonight," Markl said with ease of experience. "He likes to be left alone when he goes upstairs. He will be down tomorrow morning," Markl grinned enamored, misinterpreting Sophie's forlorn gaze upstairs. "I'll be your date tonight," he took her hands and bowed as graciously as possible, for an unpracticed ten-year-old boy.

"And so you shall, Markl," Sophie curtsied and butterflies flittered in her stomach. Her first date was with a ten-year-old lad! "Why don't you wash your face and hands, while I make myself presentable? Then off to Market Chipping we go!"

xXx

A short while later when the first shy star winked in the sky, Sophie's pulse skipped erratically, watching as Markl turned the dial to green down. Sophie tip toed down the landing stairs, quickly shooting a pensive glance up the stairs. As Markl had predicted, the Wizard did not appear.

The door groaned open to a wide, stone cobbled square. The early mulberry and peach sheets of evening blanketed the heavens, the hemline of the sky hung over an array of colored, shingled roofs. A small circular fountain trickled in the centre of the quadrangle. Shops neatly built side by side, of all widths and heights lined the opposite side of the square to the castle entrance. Green streetlights flooded the walkways with aureate blushes. The slight evening chill teased and reinvigorated Sophie's skin. She was surprised to discover the façade of the castle tucked away in an unassuming area of the town. Outside, over the archway of the castle door a peeling hand painted sign in mute grey read, _The Great Wizard Jenkins _.

The area was unfamiliar, for Sophie rarely ventured from the hat shop. If it hadn't been for her sojourns to the market or craft suppliers, she preferred not to set foot out of the hat shop at all.

Sophie flitted her excited eyes left and right. Tram tracks would aid her quest to find Lettie and the hat shop. Away down the square Sophie discerned a faint steely gleam under a flickering street lamp. Markls dinner would have to be at the mercy of where the streets took them. _Hat shop or Lettie?_ Sophie crammed her deliberations into the recess of her mind, not wishing to waste precious time. Despite Markl's ease, Sophie was cautious, and a hasty return was efficacious. She stole a last peek at the stairs, a sympathetic look at the slumbering fire, and closed the door.

"I remember the café Master Howl took me to, Sophie! It was down here," Markl jabbed frenetically down the street, before bolting away, his footfalls ricocheting after him. Shop front windows were pitched black, businesses closed for the day. Households were settling down to dinner judging from the aroma drifting out open doors and windows. Thankfully, for self-conscious Sophie in week old clothes, not too many townsfolk were about.

"Sweet Nothings! That's what it's called," Markl hollered over his shoulder. Sure enough, further down the road a shop front with the words 'Sweet Nothings' embossed in gold filigree letters on the glass window. Garish candy pink and white striped curtains shone through the crystal polished French windows. The frontage polished to a sparkling black. It screamed of extravagance and in affordability; a complementary tribute for the Wizard.

"Oh my…," Sophie nailed her boots to the road, her gaiety plummeting through the ground. She had not a coin to her! How could she have been as senseless as to forget? From the luxuriant exterior of the restaurant, Markl might possibly, have gained entry to the premise but definitely not Sophie, with her bedraggled dress and unkempt hair bundled loose on her head. _This won't do! I look ghastly!_ Sophie fumed privately, her cheeks seared hot with embarrassment.

"Markl, why don't we stop by my hat shop first? I can put on something more appropriate," Sophie suggested, suppressing the insecurities from surfacing over her face. At the hat shop she would: find some coins she had dutifully saved in her bottom drawer; change into more suitable attire; and pack her feminine needs and clothes.

The exuberance crumbled from Markl's face. A pout started to form on his lips when Sophie sugar coated the offer, "You can have a double helping of dinner if you do?" She bent down, pecking Markl on the forehead.

"Okay!" he shouted before Sophie finished he bribe, the giddiness radiating over his whole body. "That makes TWO sausages and DOUBLE helping of mash?" he confirmed. "Pretty please, Sophie? I don't mean to be greedy but I love mash and bangers!" He declared with innocent fervor.

"All right, Markl. We'd best make haste then."

xXx

Sophie scanned her surrounds earnestly, desperately searching for any recognizable landmarks, a hint of where she might be. Markl trotted ahead. Though most towns people were at home sitting down to supper, the few that were out all knew Markl and greeted him in an endless procession, as all were patrons to the castles magicapothecary. It was a happy distraction for Sophie who poked her nose around corners, inspecting potential passageways. At last, an alley rung vaguely familiar to the one Sophie had wondered down, the very one she had fled from the May Day crowd, and straight into the Wizard. Flaking salmon pink walls, the wooden panels and skirting, the faded poster curled up at the corners, the tavern where soldiers congregated. She squinted harder through the dimly lit corridor, optimistic at what she saw.

"Oh my Heavens! Where are you visiting un-chaperoned this early eve?" A dulcet feminine voice interrupted Sophie's orienteering. "It is unbecoming for young ladies to wonder the streets alone this late, my darling."

_Un-chaperoned? Unbecoming?_ "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you," Sophie snapped, un-amused. _Silly old bitty!_ Steam rolled by her own aggravation and anxiety, Sophie wheeled round to impart her fury. However, it was no silly or old bitty standing a few feet from her. Silky raven mass of ringlets pinned in a delicate coiffure sat high over a heart shaped face, accentuating slender alabaster neck. Almond shaped eyes of glistening purple grey eyes, regal shaped nose and pert rosy lips smiled at Sophie. The woman's pearly skin was translucent moon light, delicate as a rose petal. Her ample bosom rose and fell rhythmically over a corseted, lace black bodice of her dahlia crepe silk gown. The woman was achingly striking it made Sophie's heart sob. The stranger was into her twenties and held an illuminated and come-hither way about her.

"You look _quite_ lost, my darling. Might I be of some assistance?" The stranger asked flapping her gloved hands over her provocative neckline. Compassionate eyes assessed Sophie's crumpled day dress and haphazard hair. Was that pity Sophie detected her in eyes and undertone?

"I-I'm quite fine, thank you," Sophie bristled under the woman's presumptive, pretty gaze. Compared to lovely Lettie and smart Martha, Sophie had self proclaimed herself a wallflower and it had bothered her none. Yet, this moon light lady inspired Sophie's envy. She had never felt as lacking, and incomplete. Sophie chewed on her lower lip, and dropped her eyes with self-loathing.

"Oh, please do forgive me, my dear." The well to do stranger fussed and with gloved hands, and clasped Sophie's clammy hands. "I hope I did not impart any misgivings. Forgive my impertinence. The very sight of the impoverished souls sends me asunder. Were you a parlor maid who was turned out? It looks like you are in need of a place to stay. Might you consider coming to my home, if just for the night?" The stranger prattled on in an angelic voice that grated on Sophie's forehead.

Sophie leered with indignation at the achingly beautiful lady's probing temerity. _Parlor_ _maid? Impoverished?_ "Thank you, but I have a… home and I will have you know I am no maid!" Sophie hissed baring her teeth, foregoing polite vulgarities. "I must be on my way," and she made to stride down the alley, her head held high, her cheer of moments ago deflated and maimed. She should never have left the castle in the state she was in, but what choice was there?

The lady persisted and held on to Sophie's wrist with a strength that defied her delicate appearance. "As you wish, my darling," the stranger drawled whimsically. "If you should need a place to stay, my doors will be open to you," she dipped in a divine curtsey. Her sultry lips perked into a luscious, winsome smile that could have set the birds into song and the flowers to bloom. "Do give my regards to Howl, Sophie," the stranger purred and with those parting words, sashayed away, her dress swaying back and forth, flattering her hourglass silhouette.

Sophie stared, stunned after the flourish of lace, silk and piquant oils lingering behind the stranger. How did the lady know her name, her association with the Wizard? Was the bewitching goddess one of the Wizards many conquests? A barbed knot dug its steely teeth into Sophie's stomach. "Why should I care?" Sophie tore the images of the ravishing vision of the woman to shreds and hotfooted down the alley. "Why should I care? I'll be damned if I give any kind of regard to that lecherous lothario of a lizard! Why should I care what that overstuffed pompous ball of silk says! Parlor maid! Impoverished indeed!" The humiliating encounter singed Sophie right to the roots of her hair. It was entirely the Wizards fault for stealing her from the sanity of her dreary life. "I hate him!"

The golden lamps lights jumped and jabbed in Sophie's wake as she bustled by. She descended deeper into the dingy lane, forgetting her destination. She started to run, flee from that exquisite woman, running from the sensation bearing down on her. The past week confined in the castle, she had confined herself in her prison cell of misery, too preoccupied to appreciate the sympathetic fire demon, the little boy who had snuggled in a corner of her heart. It horrified Sophie to admit there was one only who possessed and consumed her every heart beat.

"Have faith. Listen to what that voice tells you, Sophie, not the voice that shouts in anger. Not the voice that cries with hurt," her father had often comforted her as a child, when her temper lashed out in fear and vacillation. "Each brick, each trial is laid in the journey of our lives for a purpose, my little hatter." _The only brick that would serve my current situation is one to one wallop over the Wizards head!_ Sophie shrieked to herself.

Did black emotions cripple her to the point she had neglected to see the Wizard as a human? Cruel as he was, sadistic and brutal as he was. He _was_ human. Was he not?

"One must place kindness over pride, forgiveness over vengeance, understanding over hurtful emotions. Listen for the whispers hidden behind the words unsaid, instead of the words spoken," her father had tried to inject his wisdom to his three daughters.

That haunting voice that beckoned from the hearth, "I found you too late," it had said. "What aren't I seeing or hearing father?" Sophie turned her eyes upward, searching through the slit of dimming sky over the narrow pass. Disorientated physically and morally, the manic drumming resumed in Sophie's head. The alley began spiralling with the vortex of nausea in Sophie's stomach, sending her slumping into the wall. The meagre contents of her stomach wanted to empty out. "I am no better than he is, am I father?" Sophie sobbed through dry tears. She was brutality to his viciousness, pride to his vanity. When she should have dodged instead of dogged; refrained instead of retaliated. She was as barbaric as he was. "If I had extended a modicum of decency, civility…I might not be in this calamity!"

The unyielding frigid temperate of the wall ate through Sophie's garments. The conniving Wizard, the aspersing fray with the beautiful stranger drained the vigor from Sophie's limbs. She pressed her back onto the wall, standing on trembling legs, unconsciously raising her wrists to her face. Through the haze of confusion and dizziness, she longed for the bruises to return. Why had the Wizard healed her? If his plan was to lose her in the darkened forest of his mind, he had succeeded. She was hopelessly lost and terribly scared.

"Hey, looks like a little mouse lost its way," drawled a gravelly voice from nowhere.

Instinctively, Sophie shot up adrenaline fuelling her limbs, sending her stumbling forward into a powder blue military jacket. Soldiers; two of them ogled down at Sophie. Their faces were handsome and angled, set with sly smiles, their bodies comparable with sturdy tree trunks.

Their appearance jarred Sophie's morbid soul searching and heart beat. "Oh no, I'm not lost," she lied pushing away from the first soldier, his proximity unwelcome and vile. Why was it not like this with the Wizard?

"This little mouse looks thirsty, we should take her for a cup of tea," the first soldier grinned, roguish dimples pocking his cheeks.

"No thanks, my sister is expecting me," a second fib came from a very prim and no longer proper Sophie. Her adrenaline pumped to her legs, preparing for an escape.

"She's pretty cute for a mouse," said the second soldier who bent lower, drawing uncomfortably close to Sophie's face.

"How old are you anyway, do you live around here?" the first soldier continued flirting and edged closer, forcing Sophie to pin herself to the wall. "Do you live around here," he persisted, leaning his arm on the wall over Sophie head, blowing on her hair.

"Leave me alone!" Sophie shrilled praying she sounded far braver than what she what felt. _I should never have left the castle!_ No adrenaline could extricate her from this! She balled her shaking fists to her chest ready to pound her way free. _Why didn't I think before coming down this alley? You never think Sophie! _Sophie bellowed silently.

The first soldier pushed his friend aside, staking his lewd claim on Sophie. "You see your moustache scares all the girls," he taunted his friend, easing his appraising eyes down to Sophie's heaving bosom, zealous to make a fleshly meal of Sophie.

"So? I think she's even cuter when she's scared," the second soldier snorted his voice hard with disappointment at having lost a little crumpet of a girl.

"_Please, don't_…," Sophie pleaded, her voice inaudible horror bearing down on her.

"There you are darling. Sorry I'm late, I've been looking all over for you," a melodic voice lifted Sophie above her horrors, and perched her on a plain of safety. His voice took her breath away, his arms clasped protectively around her shoulder breathed life into her.

"Hey, hey we're busy here!" The first soldier quipped, hostility stiffening his languid stance, both soldiers retreating a few steps at the Wizards arrival.

"It looks to me like you two were just leaving," Howl dictated with cool charm, unperturbed by the two overgrown soldiers who stood a head above his.

With a flourish, the Wizard flipped his index finger upwards, whipped the finger round, cutting a circle through the air, flattened his hand horizontally, and finally clawing his fingers flicking his hand outwards. Taken aback by the chivalrous rescue Sophie registered in amazement as the two soldiers marched off like mechanical toys on the Wizards magical strings. Their stomping boots and cursing vanished into the night behind her.

"Don't hold it against them. They're actually not that bad…," Howl excused the soldiers' misbehavior un-fussed, shocking Sophie double-fold. "Where to? I'll be your escort this evening," Howl stated with gallantry, hugging Sophie to him.

Frightened, unsure of what emotion to proceed with, Sophie stared up at the Wizard, her face abloom with reverence while her eyes flooded with a sea of panic**.**

The Wizard smiled a sympathetic, revealing sylvan scent and warmth of his arms was Sophie's unexpected home and peace, a shelter from the dangers of the world.

Howl said naught, and slipped his arm down and tucked it under Sophie's arm. She in turn placed her hand over his forearm and walked along side him. Her mind was a blank canvas, unable to express her gratitude, preoccupied her neurosis of what punishment the Wizard, might yet unleash.

"Oh…um…I was just going to the hat shop with Markl, Howl," Sophie confessed in shame, readying herself for come what may. She was taking the first step in faith, being honest and….civil, genial with the chivalrous Wizard.

"I see," Howl replied in a distant voice, stripped of any emotion. He stared ahead, strolling as if he was in a park on a sunny day. "And where is my apprentice, Sophie? Did he leave you to fend off those two women hungry soldiers?"

"_No, no Howl!_ It was my fault. I was lost and this la-….," It hurt. Why did it hurt Sophie to speak of the lady friend of the Wizards? Why did she want to conceal her clandestine brush with the beautiful enchantress? Howl had saved her...the least she could do was pass on the lady's regards. Yet, she couldn't. "I was lost. It was not Markls doing," Sophie capitulated, fighting through her confusion, her tone hollow with sadness. She withdrew her arm from the Wizard, stepping back from him, assuming customary barriers against him. She was damned by his cruelty, blighted by his kindness. Sophie averted the Wizards eyes, turning her anarchy on a splintering wood panel on the alley wall. He was going to hurt Markl, for Sophie's indiscretions, to spite her justified follies.

All was eerie and serene between the Wizard and Sophie. The sound of carriages and clip of hooves floated in the distance, and still the Wizard stood where Sophie had pulled away from him.

"Sophie," Howl said.

It must have been the queasiness churning in Sophie's stomach, but that voice... She left his word unanswered, her eyes boring holes into the wooden skirting of the narrow passage that suddenly became claustrophobic. She was sailing unchartered waters, struck down by unwanted emotions- indebted, uncertain and shy towards the Wizard.

"Sophie, look at me," he commanded with calm.

Hesitantly, Sophie lifted her quivering eyes to the Wizard. He sported a beige Manchurian jacket, decorated with pink and blue harlequin motif. White peasant shirt, tailored black pants. The lights slanting through windows cast a pale halo around his flaxen hair. Neither malice, nor contempt greeted her. Only his two hands that he extended, reaching for her.

The lights, the shadows, his words and actions struck Sophie speechless.

"Why must you incessantly fight me?" He asked without pretence, a tinge of bitterness coating his question.

Sophie's eyes flared in chagrin. She opened her mouth to retaliate, to cut him down…Nothing. Her defences failed her. "_W-Why do I fight, you?"_ Sophie whispered to the Wizard, spoken like an intimate secret reserved for him and him alone, for he was the only one that yielded the answer, in his hands.

"What are you afraid of Sophie?" The Wizard replied his emotions bare, taking a step closer to Sophie, maintaining a respectful if wanting distance.

He lowered both hands to hers, a waiting for once, for Sophie's reciprocal touch. "In these hands can be the dawn of a new day, Sophie. Will you take them?"

* * *

**AN:** The scene with the two soldiers is taken from the movie in case you didn't guess or haven't seen it. :) Well, Sophie isn't suffering too much in this chapter so it should make those of you who thought she suffered a little too much, slightly happier. :) Also, how would you feel if you were in Sophie's situation? Would you be as generous and forgiving towards the Wizard? Annnddd…would u take his hands if he offered them to you in the context of this chapter? :D Can you figure out what the Wizard is doing?


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